


viKUURAPHICAL, HISTORICAL 



STATXSTXCAX. 



REPOSITORY. 



BY WJLLMM BMBY, 



,i a Map, and Statistical account of Louisiana; Emigrant's Guide; Toui- from Ntw-Yo 
to Detroit ; Meraoiv on Florida j and Universal Geographical Dictionary. 



VOL. I.— No. I. 
SEPTEiaBEB, 1824. 




PHILADELPHIA 




BUSHED BY THE AUTHOB> AT NO, 2 NORTH SEVENTH STUEEJ 
William Drown, Print'. J 

1S21, 




The Reader is desired to observe, that in Table No. 4. 
page 56, the levels of the Susquehanna and Tioga rivers from 
Harrisburg to Newtown, are merely estimated relatively, and 
not calculated from actual measurement. «? 



Error to be Corrected. -t 

For Captain H. Bestody, in page 61, read Captain H. Bertody. 



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i> 



GEOGRAPHICAL, HISTORICAL, 



STATXSTZCAZ. 



REPOSITORY 



BY WILLIJIM DARBY, 



Authoi' of a Map, and Statistical account of Louisiana ; Emigrant's Guide ; Tour from KewvYorU 
to Detroit; Memoir on Florida ; and Universal Geographical Dictionary. 



VOL. I. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, NO. 2 NORTH SEVENTH STREET. 
William Brown, Printer. 

1824. 



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VOL. L— No. L 

TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

SECTIOK I." 

Geographical view of the mountains and rivers of Pennsylvania. 

SECTIOir II. 

Historical retrospect of English discovery and colonization in North America 
from 1496 to 1606. 

SECTION III. 

View of the various routes by which a canal communication may be form- 
ed between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. 

Notice of Shriver's account of surveys and examinations, with remarks and 
documents, relative to the projected Chesapeake and Ohioj and Ohio and 
Lake Erie canals. 



^ 


3^ 








v: 




%» 



INTRODUCTION. 

1^ IN presenting to the public eye the first Number of the 

Ilepository, it may not be irrelevant to enter with some more 
minuteness into the vievvs intended to be embraced than has 
been done in the original Prospectus. As proposed, the work 
will be subdivided into three parts : 

Sect. I. This section will be appropriated to subjects 
purely Geographical ; in which, however, that term will be 
considered as taken in its most extensive sense, including 
Natural and Political Geograph}^. It is intended to present 
the reader with geographical sketches of any part of the world, 
which, from particular causes, may claim a peculiar and in- 
stantaneous attention : such attention is generally excited by 
war, political revolution, or recent discovery. These are in- 
exhaustible sources of interest, which, in their occurrence, en- 
force, stimulate, and localize curiosity. They are sources of 
intellectual reflection, which, when ceasing to flow, or becom- 
ing partially exhausted in one quarter, open copiously in some 
other region of our ever changeful earth. The task of the editor 
v/ill be to watch the progress of those changes, and point out 
to his reader the result. 

Though the scope of this section is thus expressed in gene- 
ral terms, the pages of the Repository will be, in great part, 
employed to delineate the particular Natural and Political Geo- 
graphy of the United States. As usually described in com- 
mon geographical systems, the various subdivisions of the earth 
are represented as mere skeletons. The student from such 
treatises derives no more real knowledge of the capabilities of 
any country, than he could obtain of the character of an indi- 
vidual by being informed of his height and weight. 

Geography, as a science, is moral. The interest we feel in 
tracing the features, developing the resources, and in scanning 
the improvements of any given portion of the earth, must arise 
from the character of the people who inhabit its surface. In 
this respect, not alone the territory of the United States, but 
all America, is gaining daily more to arrest the attention of 
the statesman and philosopher. 

The Geography of the United States is a vast outline, 
tolerably traced, but the shades of colouring remain a void, 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

except in a few instances. The intrinsic value of statistical 
knowledge can only be known from its application in augment- 
ing the sum of general prosperity by pointing out. the springs 
of general resource. This invaluable pursuit has only recently 
assumed the character of a science, and, as such, is yet con- 
fined to a few countries, and is every where imperfect. The 
editor anxiously desires to become enabled to dedicate his en- 
tire time and attention to the undertaking he now places be- 
fore the public, and in aid of which he solicits patronage. His 
own individual fitness or unfitness to do justice to an enter- 
prise, involving so many details, on three of the most digni- 
fied objects of human study, can be only known from the exe- 
cution of his enterprise. The importance of the subjects needs 
no farther amplification ; the issue is left to the candour, 
generosity, and discernment of an enlightened public. 

Similar observations may be made respecting every other 
section of this continent. Cities, towns, states, and even em- 
pires are rising with a rapidity which mocks the regular pro- 
gress of geographical record. A periodical publication, there- 
fore, in which every such object would meet prompt notice, 
must produce great public benefit. 

Important as it may be as a moral and physical science, geo- 
graphy derives its highest value as an aid to human history. 
In this respect our views of nations are clear and decisive in 
proportion as we possess a comprehensive knowledge of their 
locality. Under the general head of Geography, in the Repo- 
sitory, will be included, all that appertains to either natural 
feature or natural production. With this latitude must be em- 
braced every object relating to countries, either in a state of 
nature, or as improven by art.* 

Sect. II. This section will be Historical, and dedicated 
principally to record the leading events of the present or pass- 
ing time ; but, as many instances must occur, when to judge of 
the existing, we are compelled to review the anterior state of na- 
tions, the Historical sketches will be often retrospective beyond 
what can be considered the present age. It would be vain, 
however, in this place, to anticipate the course necessary to 
pursue respecting objects, the importance or extent of which 
can only be shewn by time. 

In conducting the Repository, many very subtantial reasons 
have induced me to open the work with Pennsylvania; the 
first two volumes, consisting of six numbers, or 384 octavo 

* See pag'e 9. 



INTRODUCTION. 

pages each, will therefore be appropriated to give a view of 
the geographical features ; the natural productions ; improve- 
ments of every species ; and the civil and political History of 
Pennsylvania. 

In order, to develop clearly, the history of Pennsylvania, 
it is indispensable to take a retrospective survey of the ante- 
cedent colonial establishment of England in North America. 
This investigation leads to a review of the colonial history of 
Virginia, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New-Haven, 
Rhode Island, Maryland, New-Jersey, Delaware, and New- 
York, previous to the date of the first charter of Pennsylvania. 

In my public Historical Lectures, in Philadelphia and New- 
York, I have uniformly proceeded on the principle, that to 
understand our national, it was imperatively necessary to have 
carefully studied our colonial history; and that to comprehend 
the latter with adequate accuracy, the colonies must be exa- 
mined in connection. 

The preliminary matter must of course be treated of briefly, 
as accessary to the main subject, the history of Pennsylvania. 
The early events however, in the establishment of New-Jer- 
sey, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania, were so blended 
as to superinduce considerable detail on the three former co- 
lonies, in order to trace the progress of the latter with perspi- 
cuity. 

Myself a native of Pennsylvania, I had at various periods 
travelled extensively over its surface; but having conceived 
the design of becoming its historian, I have availed myself of 
every opportunity to examine those parts I had not formerly 
visited. 

From the 2d of March, 1823, until the 25th of June, 1824, 
I was employed in travelling, most of the time in the interior 
of Pennsylvania. My object was an examination of those parts 
of the state I had not previously visited. In all my geogra- 
phical disquisitions I have written, as far as in my power, from 
actual observation. Employed as I have been, in such labour 
for neai'ly 30 years, from governments, as such, I have not 
received the aid of one cent, and very little patronage from 
individuals directly connected with governments. It was from 
the liberalty of individuals in private life, that my support has 
been, and I expect will continue to be drawn. Once more my 
appeal is made to the public. Six numbers form a volume, 
and consequently, two volumes will be published annually. 
The subscribers are only bound to continue their patronage to 
one volume ; the execution of which will fully test the talents 
of the author to do justice to his subject. 



6 INTRODirCTlOIs. 

Should the Repository be continued, and adequately execu- 
ted, it is obvious that a few years must render its volumes a 
source of material for that literary desideratum, a general his- 
tory of the United States. 

Each volume will have prefixed a map of such- parts of the 
United States, as are more particularly treated of; and will 
have annexed a copious index. The Map of Pennsylvania will 
attend the first, and that of New-Jersey will be included in 
the second volume. 

I have adopted, when treating on mountains, System as a ge- 
neric term, and Chain as specific. This is indispensable re- 
specting the great central mountains of the United States. 
Considered as a system, this great mountain mass is compos- 
ed of several lateral ridges. These ridges literally extend 
like links of a chain. Broken by rivers or creeks, or otherwise 
interrupted, they are still continuous, to a great or lesser dis- 
tance. Allegany is rendered inapplicable as a distinctive name 
of the system from being applied to one of its chains.* 

I know of no former attempt to give a philosophical analysis 
of the mountains of the United States, and from the existing 
and strengthening spirit of canal and road improvement, I am 
acquainted with no branch of geography of more national im- 
portance. It is a subject on which, in conducting my Reposi- 
tory, I shall lose no opportunity to collect and record accurate 
information. 

The mountain chains of Pennsylvania have a grandeur of 
appearance, and a mass of mineral wealth, which combine to 
give them interest to the geographer, and natural historian. 
The inexhaustible stores of iron ore and mineral coal in and 
near the chains traversing this state, are in themselves objects 
of primary magnitude, and leading elements in every statisti- 
cal review of its most essential natural resources. It is there- 
fore, the more necessary to obtain detailed and correct con- 
ceptions of features forming so deeply and prominently apart 
of the geography, and so permanently influential on the im- 
provement and prosperity of the state. 

European geographers have, very correctly, adopted differ- 
ent terms to designate the spaces drained by rivers discharged 
into oceans, and those of their minor branches ; for the former. 
Basin is used, for the latter, Valley. This nomenclature I have 
also adopted, and consequently say Basin of Delaware, and 
Valley of Schuylkill ; Basi^i of Mississippi, and Valley of 
Ohio ; and use a similar distinction wherever necessary. In 
my public Lectures, and geographical disquisitions generally, 

* See note, page 12. 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

I have made use of the term Atlantic slope, as a collective 
name for that part of the United States, and British provinces, 
the rivers of which are discharged into the Atlantic ocean. 

Rivers are, of all natural tracts in the physiognomy of any 
country, those that most directly enhance intercommunication. 
It is a narrow and contracted view of canal or road creation, in 
such a country as that of the United States, to consider it of 
local interest. No canal, or road traversing any state, can have 
its resulting benefits confined to that particular political section. 
Any correct delineations given of any river, must consequently 
have not a local, but a national value. This is in a high degree 
true as respects the Susquehanna and the Ohio, and their con- 
fluents. The success of the sublime experiment made in the 
state of New-York, has lessened the incredulity of the human 
mind, and induced men to inquire into the practicability of con- 
structing canals in places formerly overlooked, and have been 
led to engage in such undertakings with physical means, deem- 
ed hitherto as entirely inadequate. The national legislature has 
been at length influenced by this revolution in public senti- 
ment, and has instituted a series of inquiry which, whether 
the projected canals are undertaken or not, must produce re- 
sults greatly overbalancing in value any attendant expense.^ 
It is much to be hoped that these surveys may be extended to 
the Susquehanna, in all its branches. Few are aware of the 
immense field of improvement which may be opened by the 
channel of this magnificent stream. Should the canal route 
by the Potomac and Ohio, that by the Susquehanna and Se- 
neca lake, or either be completed, the eff'ects will be felt to the 
most remote extremes of the United States, and links of ada- 
mantine strength formed to secure the integrity of our con- 
federacy. The epoch of such a consummation may be hailed as 
a jubilee, and it may then be said truly, " the mountains have 
disappeared." Their towering summits may indeed remain, 
to give richness and splendour to the scenery, but their moral 
and political efl'ects will have ceased. 

Sect. III. In this department the subjects will be purely 
Statistical, and dedicated to the descriptions and notices of pub- 
lic improvements and discoveries, more especially those in the 
United States. Under this head will be ranged all matter re- 
lating to canals, roads, bridges, important post-office regula- 
tions, manufactories, mineralogical operations — and in fine, 
upon every object connected with the advance or retrograda- 
tion of society, in the cultivation of those sciences, or the 

• See Section III. of this number. 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

practice of those arts conducive to the promotion of individual 
comfort or aggregate force. In the performance of such an 
enterprise, our mite, however humble, will be given to aid in 
the development of national, sectional, and individual re- 
source. 

In every department of the Repository, the far greatest part 
of the matter will be original composition. It is not my in- 
tention to make the statistical section of my miscellany a col- 
lection of scraps. When any public improvement is either 
completed or proposed, such information as I can procure on 
the subject shall be placed on record ; and with such geogra- 
phical explanation, as to render the statistical matter intelli- 
gible. 

It is inutile to detain the reader by farther explanations. A 
specimen of the Repository is before the public in this num- 
ber. The general principles of the publication have been de- 
veloped ; and it may be safely asserted that no existing perio- 
dical paper in the United States can answer its purposes. An 
adherence to the general plan, it must to be obvious, will save 
the reader the fatigue of perusing indigested document. The 
Repository will assume an aspect the opposite of a Register; 
as in the latter, state papers form the body of the work, whilst 
in the former, their substance is preserved, but reduced in 
magnitude, and presented in the more inviting shape of his- 
torical narration. 

Recent treatises on subjects connected with those of the 
Register will be, when their existence is made known to the 
editor, noticed at the close of each number. Tlie general scope 
of such woi'ks will be laid before his readers when criticism 
shall be in his power by perusal. 

A copious index will close each volume, and be published 
with the last number. The index will be appended to the 
volume, and printed on an extra sheet ; consequently, each 
volume will contain nearly, if not altogether 400 pages. 

Thus I have placed before its reader the intended character 
of the Repository. It cannot escape the least observing, that 
much labour and active research must be called into requisi- 
tion to fulfil its promise. The difficulties of performance, nor 
incapacity of execution can be pleaded as an excuse for ineffi- 
ciency, but candour will excuse many imperfections in a novel 
and incipient undertaking. With the utmost confidence in, the 
liberality of that public whose generous indulgence I have so 
oftend experienced, I now launch into the performance of my 
arduous enterprise. 

WILLIAM DARBY. 

Philadelphia, August 14th, 1824. 



DARBY'S 

REPOSITORY. 



VOL. I. SEPTEMBER, 1824. N° I. 

SECTION I. 

GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

To preserve perspicuity, we are compelled, in geographical 
disquisitions, to precede the natural by a description of arti- 
ficial subdivision. This method is indispensable, as references 
are perpetually necessary from the former to the latter. In 
the Repository the arrangement will be as follows : 

Name^ origin of. 

Natural position^ as respects latitude, longitude, and conti- 
guous states, territories, &c. 

Extent^ Boundaries^ and Political^ or other conventional subdi- 
visions. 

Natural features — Mountains — Their range ; elevation ; com- 
ponent matter ; geological formation, and mineral produc- 
tions. 

Rivers — Their course ; area they respectively drain ; their 
contained facilities or obstructions to navigation. Vegetable 
and mineral productions generally. 

Climate and Seasons — Their effects on vegetable life, and on 
the navigation of rivers and canals. How influenced by 
relative elevation ; exposure ; contiguity to land or water, 
and by other general or local causes. 

Artijiciul features — Cities, towns, roads, canals, bridges, ma- 
nufactories of every description; colleges, schools, churches, 
and charitable establishments. 
Vol. I,— B No. 1. 



10 Geographical View of Pennsylvania. [Seft. 

As far as practicable, the subject matter will follow in re- 
gular order, as it is the desire of the Editor to render his 
work as easy of reference as within his power. 

In accordance with previous notice, the first two volumes of 
the Repository will be occupied with Pennsylvania, and such 
other parts of the United States, the civil history of which is 
closely blended with that of the primary subjects of disquisi- 
tion. A similar course will be continued, should any other 
great section of the United States be taken up in the future 
volumes of the Repository. 

It is in general extremely difficult to trace civil history up 
to the period of writing. So complicated are the details of 
the passing moment, and so conflicting the evidence upon 
which is to be established, the truth of facts alleged to have 
occurred, that much caution must be exercised by that jour- 
nalist whose pages will contain only real history. The editor, 
therefore, begs leave to recur to an expression used in his ori- 
ginal Prospectus, — ••' No statement xvill be made in any depart- 
ment^ until the subject matter has assumed the stamp of cer~ 
taintyy 

It will, of course, be obvious, that the thread of history 
must, in every instance, be broken before reaching the time of 
publication ; and it will, however, be equally evident, that as 
it progresses, the Repository must be constantly accumulating 
treasures of historical fact. 



Pennsylvania. This name is derived from the surname 
of William Penn, and Sylvan, woods ; and means, literally, 
Penn's woods. Though at the epoch when the name was im- 
posed, the real features of the country it was in future to de- 
signate, were in great part unknown, to those who were its 
authors, no term could be more appropriate. Few, if any, 
regions of equal extent, and in one continuous body, ever 
bore, in a state of nature, a more dense forest. Pennsylvania 
was an expanse of woods, in the strictest acceptation of the 
word. 

As now limited, Pennsylvania extends from N. Lat. 39° 43' 
to N. Lat. 42° 16' ; and from 2° 20' E. to 3° 36' W. from 
Washington City.* 

* Prom the operation of causes, which will be shewn in the sequel, Penn- 
sylvania has assumed a local extent very different from the charter of its 
political creation. Its laws and the liberty of its inhabitants were the fruits 
©f design ; its boundaries, in some measure, that of accident. 



1824.] Geographical Viexv of Pennsylvania. 11 

Pennsylvania is bounded in common with Delaware, 
from the Delaware river by a circular line, around 
New Castle county, to the N. E. limits of Ccecil Miles. 
county, Maryland, ----- ^ 24 

Due north to the N. E. angle of Maryland, - - 2 

Along the northern limit of Maryland, ■*> - 203 

In common with Virginia, from the N. W. angle of 

Maryland to the S. W. angle of Greene county, 59 

Due north, in common with Ohio, and Brooke coun- 
ties of Virginia to the Ohio river, . _ . 64 

Continuing the last noted limit, in common with Ohio 

to lake Erie, -------51 

Along the S. E. shore of Lake Erie to the western 

limit of New-York, 39 

Due south along Chatauque county of New-York to 

N. Lat. 42% - - - ' - - - - 19 

Thence due east in common with New- York, to the 

right bank of Delaware river, - - - - 230 

Down the Delaware to the N. E. angle of the state 

of Delaware, - - - ^ - - ^ 230 

Having an entire outline of - = - - 961 

The greatest length of Pennsylvania, is due west, from 
Bristol on the Delaware river, to the eastern border of Ohio 
county in Virginia, through 356 minutes of longitudf , along 
N. Lat. 40° 09'. This distance, on that line of liiUtude, is 
equal to 315 American statute miles. 

The greatest breadth 176 miles, from the Virginia line to 
the extreme northern angle on Lake Erie. 

General breadth, 188 miles. 

The area of Pennsylvania has been variously stated, but 
probably never very accurately determined. In both Morse's 
and Worster's Gazetteers, the superficies is given at 46,000 
square miles.* Other authorities vary, but I find from com- 

* On the large state map, by Melisb, the area is given at 43,950. From the 
peculiar manner of collecting and collating the materials for Melish's map, we 
ought to consider it the best authority as to the extent of the state it repre- 
sents ; but it yields to the test of actual calculation, and gives to the state 
neai'ly one-fifteenth too little area. The error arose, no doubt, from using 
the common, but very inaccurate mode of estimating curve superficies by 
maps. The surface being curved, if the smallest county in Pennsylvania was 
calculated by its length and breadth on a map, the quotient would be rather 
the area of the base, than that of the curve superficies. Every county being 
thus subject to a small decrement, the aggregate of the whole would yield an 
amount considerably too small. A measurement of the whole state, on such 
principles, would be liable to similar error. 

From placing a much too implicit confidence in the state map, I gave th« 



r 



12 Geographical View of Pennsylvania. [Seft. 

paring the best maps, and from calculating the rhumbs, and 
parts, occupied by the state, that Pennsylvania includes above 
47,000 square miles. Rejecting the fractional excess, and 
using that curve superficies, the state will contain thirty mil- 
lion and eighty thousand statute acres. 

The mountains of Pennsylvania, obtrude themselves at the 
first glance on a map, as the most prominent of its natural 
features. No even tolerably good survey having ever been 
made of the mountains of this region, and many important 
chains having been entirely omitted, a lucid classification is" 
attended with great difficulty. Some of the collateral chains 
hitherto overlooked, I have supplied from personal observa- 
tion ; but no doubt much remains to be added or rectified, by 
future research. 

The structure and position of its mountains, has given to 
Pennsylvania an aspect peculiar to itself. The Appalachian* 
system in the United States, generally extends in a direction, 
deviating not very essentially from south-west to north-east ; but 
in Pennsylvania, the whole system is inflected from that course, 
and passes the state in a serpentine direction. Towards the south 
boundary, the mountains lie about north north-east, gradually 
inclining more eastwardly as they penetrate northwards ; and 
in the central counties, many of the chains lie nearly east and 
west ; but as they extend towards the northern border of the 
state, they again imperceptibly incline to the north-east, and 
enter New-York and New- Jersey in nearly that direction. 

The inlluence ^f the mountains in modifying the general 
features, is very obvious, far beyond, where any chains or 
ridges are sufficiently elevated to be classed as parts of the 
Appalachian system. It will be, however, shewn in the pro- 
gress of this review, that the mountain system is very much 
too greatly restricted, not alone in Pennsylvania, but also in 
Maryland, Virginia, New-York, and New-Jersey. 

Without attending to minor claims, the mountains of Penn- 
sylvania, advancing from the south-east to north-west, are as 
follows : 

Though omitted in most maps, a chain enters the south 
boundary of York county, and cut by the Susquehanna river, 

area of Pennsylvania, in my Geographical Dictionary, 43,950 square miles; 
but from a rigid calculation, I now find a very materia! difference between 
the real area and that taken from this map. 

After considerable labour, I have found the area of Pennsylvania above 
47,000 square miles, but have assumed that round sum as more convenient^ 
and more easily remembered, than a number incumbered with fractions. 

* Tlie term Appalachian is cei-tainly preferable to that of Allegany, if for 
no other reason than, that the latter, particularly in Pennsylvania, is applied 
to one of the chains of the system. 



1824.] Geographical View of Pennsylvania. 13 

rises in, and traverses Lancaster county between Pequea and 
Octorara creeks ; and between the sources of the Conestoga 
and Brandywine, separates for a short distance, Lancaster 
and Chester counties. Continuing between Berks and Ches- 
ter, it is interrupted by the Schuylkill above Pottstown. Ris- 
ing again, and stretching north-east, forms first, the boundary 
between Montgomery and Berks ; thence between Lehigh and 
Bucks, and separating Northampton from Bucks, reaches the 
Delaware, Pursuing a north-east course through New-Jer- 
sey, separating Sussex from Huntingdon, Morris, and Bergen 
counties, enters New-York between the sources of the Wal- 
kill and Passaic rivers ; and extending, in broken ridges, 
through the south-east part of Orange county, forms the High- 
lands near West Point. 

The almost uniform neglect of professed geographers re- 
specting this strongly marked feature, attests the infancy of 
the science in the United States. After having formed the 
celebrated masses on both sides of the Hudson between New- 
burg and West Point, the ridge continues north-east, separat- 
ing Putnam from Dutchess counties. Inflecting to the north, 
and forming the separating ridge between the waters of the 
Hudson and Housatonic rivers, stretches through the eastern 
part of Dutchess, Columbia, and Rennssalaer counties. Along 
the two latter, however, the ridge under review, forms, in 
reality, the separating boundary between New- York and Mas- 
sachusetts ; and entering the south-west angle of Vermont, 
continues through that state, by the name of Green Moun- 
tains, into Lower Canada. Thus prominent and continuous, 
from the Susquehanna to the north-east, this part of the Ap- 
palachian system is equally so through Maryland, Virginia, 
and North Carolina. Passing over Harford, Baltimore, Anne 
Arundel, and Montgomery counties, in Maryland, it forms 
falls in the Potomac, twelve miles above Georgetown, and ex- 
tends into Virginia in Fairfax county. Varying in distance 
from twenty to thirty miles the Great Kittatinny or Blue Ridge, 
and the ridge we have been tracing, traverses Virginia into 
North Carolina. Leaving Virginia in Henry, and entering 
North Carolina in Stokes county ; with its farther range I 
am unacquainted, but have no doubt but that it is distinctly 
continued over the Carolinas and Georgia into Alabama^ 
Though the structure of the Atlantic slope, decidedly evinces 
a conformity to the Appalachian system, far below the south- 
east mountain, it is the terminating continuous ridge towards 
the Atlantic ocean. 

North-west from, and nearly parallel to, the South moun- 
tain, another very remarkable ridge traverses New-Jersey and 



:il4 Geographical View of Pennsylvania. [Sep*; 

Pennsylvania, and similai* to the former, the latter is unknown 
in either of these states, by any general name. Its continua- 
tion in New-York is designated by the Shawangunk. Be- 
tween the Susquehanna and Potomac, it is termed relatively, 
the South mountain ; and in Virginia and the Carolinas, it 
forms the Blue ridge ; and entering the north-west part of 
Georgia, is gradually lost amongst the sources of Chatahoo- 
che river. 

To preserve perspicuity, I have adopted, or rather extend- 
ed the name Blue Ridge, into Pennsylvania and New- Jersey. 
This very remarkable chain of the Appalachian system enters 
Pennsylvania, on its southern line, and stretching north be- 
tween Adams and Franklin counties, reaches the southern 
angle of Cumberland, where it turns to north-east, and tx- 
tending towards the Susquehanna, separates Cumberlaiid from 
Adams and York counties. About six miles below Harris- 
burg, the Blue Ridge, is pierced or broken by the Susque- 
hanna, and again rising below the mouth of Swatara, crosses 
the southern angle of Dauphin ; thence known as the Cone- 
wago hills, separates Lebanon from Lancaster county, enters 
Berks, and reaches the Schuylkill at Reading. Continuing 
through Berks, Lehigh, and Northampton counties, the Blue 
Ridge passes Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton, is again in- 
terrupted bv the Delaware, below the latter town. Extending 
through Sussex county, the Blue Ridge enters New-York, and 
is finally terminated in the Shawangunk, on the west side of 
Hudson river, and amongst the branches of the Walkill. 

In one respect, the South-east mountain and Blue Ridge, in 
Pennsylvania and New-Jersey, differ from other sections of 
the Appalachian system. The two chains we have noticed, 
are formed of links more detached, than are those more re- 
mote from the Atlantic ocean ; but, otherwise in respect to 
component matter, range, and vegetation, are in every place 
well marked sections of the general system. The very une- 
qual elevation of their various parts, may, perhaps, be also 
adduced, as a characteristic of the South-east niountain and 
Blue Ridge. The former does not, it is prcivihle, in any part 
of Pennsylvania or New-Jersey, rise to 1000 fcvn above the 
level of the Atlantic ocean, whilst in New-York, at the High- 
lands, some of the peaks, particularly Butterhiil, exceeds 1500 
feet elevation above tide water ; and in Massachusetts and 
Vermont, towers to near 30Cu feet. If taken generaUy, the 
Blue Ridge, in Pennsylvania and New-Jersey, is nioie elevat- 
ed than the South-east mountain, yf t no pardcular part ot the 
former rises to an equal elevation with the Highlands, on 
either bank of the Hudson. 



1824.] Geographical Viexu of Pennsylvania. 15 

In Maryland, the Blue Ridge assumes a very distinctive as- 
pect, and separating Frederick and Washington counties, is 
broken by the Potomac at Harper's ferry, below the mouth of 
Shenandoah. This fine chain crosses, and adorns Virginia, 
and North and South Carolina. In one remarkable circum- 
stance, the Blue Ridge stands alone amongst the mountain 
chains of the United States. From the Susquehanna, to the 
north-west angle of South Carolina, in a distance of upwards 
of 500 miles, it everv whe/e forms a county demarcation. 

The third, and in some respects the most remarkable chain 
of Pennsylvania, is the Kittatinny. Known by divers local 
names, the Kittatinny, in a survey advancing from south-west 
to north east, first rises distinctively in Franklin county, and 
like other chains in the southern margin of Pennsylvania, 
ranges a little east of north ; but inflecting more to the north- 
east, extends to the Susquehanna, separating Cumberland and 
Perry counties. Five miles above Harrisburg, the Kittatinny 
is interrupted by the Susquehanna. Broken also, by the Swa- 
tara, the Schuylkill, the Lehigh, and Delaware, the Kittatinny 
enters New-Jersey, through which it passes into New-York, 
and forms, by its continuation, the Catsbergs. The general 
aspect of the Kittatinny is much more continuous than any 
other mountain chain of Pennsylvania. It is, however, very 
far from being uniform in elevation, varying from 800, toper- 
haps 1500 feet above tide water. 

North-west from the Kittatinny, though more elevated, the 
chains are much less distinctly defined. Between the Kitta- 
tinny mountain, and the north branch of Susquehanna river^ 
the intermediate country is in a great part composed of high 
rugged mountains, and narrow, deep, and precipitous valleys. 
This is the most sterile and least improvable part of Pennsyl- 
vania ; but it is the region producing the most extensive 
masses of Anthracite coal, known on the globe. 

The confusion in the natural arrangement of the Anthra- 
cite* section of Pennsylvania, is more apparent than real. 
The Kittatinny mountain and Susquehanna river, lie nearly 
parallel upwards of seventy miles ; distant from each other 
about 25 miles. The intervening space is filled by lateral 
chains, rising in many places, far above any part of the Kit-' 
tatinny.' Amongst these chains, two are worthy of particular 
notice, and serve, pre-eminently to elucidate the very peculiar 
topography of interior Pennsylvania. 

Bedford and Franklin counties are separated by a chain, 

* I haye taken the liberty to introduce this term for the country under re- 
view, descriptive of its most abundant and most valuable mineral production. 



16 Geographical Viexv of Pennsylvania. [Sept. 

there known, as Cove mountain. With a change of name, to 
Tuscarora mountain, the latter chain separates Franklin from 
Huntingdon, and Perry from Mifflin, and reaches the Susque- 
hanna nearly opposite the southern extremity of Northumber- 
land county. Rising again below the Mahantango river, and 
broken into vast links, the chain divides into nearly equal 
parts, the space between the Kittatinny mountains and the 
main branch of Susquehanna river. Broad mountain passed 
on the road, from Easton and Bethlehem to Berwick, is one 
of the great links of this central chain.* With its extension 
north-east, towards the Delaware, I am unacquainted. 

More accurate surveys would, it is more than probable, 
identify. Sideling hill, of Bedford county. Jack's mountain, of 
Huntingdon and Mifflin, and the central chains of Union, Co- 
lumbia, and Luzerne counties. The chain which rises on 
both banks of the Susquehanna, in Luzerne, is amongst the 
most interesting features, not only in the United States, but 
the world. The very peculiar structure of this valley will be 
noticed more appropriately, when treating of the rivers of 
that part of Pennsylvania. In the present instance, it is the 
mountains we have before us, and to which our attention is 
directed. Below Sunbury, a chain commences, or if my sup- 
position is correct, is continued up the Susquehanna, along its 
left shore ; this chain is crossed by the river above Danville, 
and again above Catawissa. From the latter place, the chain 
stretches to the north-east, through Columbia, enters Luzerne 
by the name of Nescopeck mountain, and mingles ultimately 
with other chains, and is terminated towards the southern an- 
gle of Wayne county. Nearly parallel to the Nescopeck, and 
with a comparatively narrow intervening valley, another chain 
leaves the Susquehanna, above the borough of Northumber- 
land, and traversing Northumberland and Columbia counties, 
enters Luzerne, and is broken by the Susquehanna sixteen 
miles below Wilkes-Barre. Skirting the left bank about eight 
miles, it is again crossed by the river, and continuing its 
course north-east, passes about two and a half miles from and 
opposite Wilkes-Barre, Preserving its course north-east, it is 
for the third and last time, crossed by the Susquehanna, above 
the mouth of Lackawannock creek, ten miles above Wilkes- 
Barre, and stretching towards the Delaware, is lost in Wayne 
county. Beyond the main branch of Susquehanna, to the 

* Broad mountain I found considerably more elevated than Kittatinny. 
When on the highest part of the eastern slope of the former, the Blue Kidge 
was distinctly visible to an immense distance over the latter. I am inclined 
to consider the summit of Broad mountain elevated at least 2500 feet above 
tide water. 



1824.] Geographical View of Pennsylvania, 17 

north-west, the chains lie nearly parallel to those south-east 
from that river. The structure of the country, on both sides 
of the Susquehanna nearly the same. The yet discovered 
mines of Anthracite coal, advancing from south-east to north- 
west, cease, in the chain immediately opposite Wilkes-Barre. 

To the eye, the region included between the west branch of 
Susquehanna, and the Potomac, bears a strong analogy to that 
between the west and north branches of Susquehanna, but a 
minute scrutiny exposes a great change advancing south-west 
towards the borders of Maryland. Soil and vegetation both 
differ materially. The beech, hemlock, and sugar-maple fo- 
rests, are succeeded, in the valleys, by oak, hickory, and elm. 
Thus far the entire drain of Pennsylvania is into the Atlantic 
ocean. The chain called the Allegany, forms, in the southern 
parts of Pennsylvania, the dividing ridge between the Atlan- 
tic slope and the valley of Ohio. 

Allegany mountain has, no doubt from this circumstance, 
received its pre-eminence amongst the mountain chains of 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Only about sixty 
miles of its range in the former state, however, does separate 
the sources of the streams of the two great natural sections, 
the Atlantic Slope and Ohio valley. The Allegany chain 
leaving Allegany county, in Maryland, separates Bedford and 
Somerset counties, and extending in a northerly direction, also 
separates the north-west part of Bedford from the south-east 
part of Cambria county. At the extreme northern angle of 
Bedford, the Allegany turns to north-east, and is thence drain- 
ed on both sides by the tributary streams of the Susquehanna. 
Discharging the waters of the west branch to the north-west, 
and those of the Juniata and Bald Eagle rivers to the south- 
east ; the Allegany reaches the west branch of Susquehanna 
at the mouth of Bald Eagle river. 

Here, once more, the defect of our maps are strikingly ap- 
parent. Lycoming county is delineated as if no mountain 
chains traversed its surface. This is not the fact, though too 
little is known of that part of Pennsylvania, to admit a clas- 
sification of its mountains. If I was to hazard a conjecture, 
I should make the chain which crosses the Susquehanna in 
Bradford county, near to, and below Towanda, the continua- 
tion of the Allegany. It may be remarked, that it is only in 
a few places east of, and those immediately in its spurs, that 
bituminous coal has been hitherto discovered in Pennsylvania 
on the Atlantic slope ; whilst this mineral abounds north-west 
from the Allegany chain. This locality of bituminous coal 

Vol. I.— C No. 1. 



18 Geographical Vieru of Pennsylvania. [Sept, 

prevails across the whole state, and is found from near Tow- 
anda, in Pennsylvania, into Maryland.* 

How far, and to what extent, the bituminous coal forma- 
tion, spreads into Virginia, I am unable to determine. The 
Allegany chain may, in the existing state of our mineralogi- 
cal knowledge, be viewed as the limit between the two species 
of coal in Pennsylvania. 

Whatever may be the elevation of its summit, the base of 
the Allegany chain, between Bedford, and Somerset, and Cam- 
bria counties, constitutes the height of land between the Ohio 
river and Atlantic tides ; and forms also, a similar demarca- 
tion in Maryland. This circumstance is entitled to our serious 
notice, from this region being the intended route of the Che- 
sapeake and Ohio canal. The summit level, or Cumberland 
1-oad, as given by Mr. Schriver, is 2825 feet. 

As a mountain chain, the Allegany yields in grandeur of 
scenery, and in elevation above its base, to not only the Broad 
mountain, but to many other chains of the Appalachian sys- 
tem. 

- Chesnut Ridge is the next chain west of the Allegany ; the 
two chains extending nearly parallel, and about twenty miles 
asunder. Though comparatively humble in respect to eleva- 
tion, Chesnut Ridge is one of the most extended chains of the 
system to which it appertains ; reaching by various local 
names over Virginia, into Tennessee, and most probably into 
Alabama. As placed on our maps, Chesnut Ridge enters 
Pennsylvania at the north-west angle of Maryland, and rang- 
ing a little east of north, forms the boundary between Union 
and Somerset ; thence between Westmoreland and Somerset, 
and finally between the north-east angle of Westmoreland and 
the south-west of Cambria county. At the extreme north- 
east angle of Westmoreland, the Chesnut Ridge reaches the 
Kiskiminitas river ; and as delineated, its termination. So 
far from being so in nature, this chain preserves its identity 
through the state farther north than any other chain of the 
Appalachian system. 

Laurel Hill is the last chain of the system in Pennsylvania. 
What has been already observed respecting the comparatively 
depressed chains nearest the Atlantic ocean, may be repeated 

* In June 1823, I visited Towanda, and was thei'e informed, that bitumi- 
nous coal of the best quality, and in great quantity, had been discovered in 
the mountain valleys south-west from that place. In September and October, 
of the same year, I travelled over Allegany county, in Maryland, and found 
bituminous coal of very superior quality, in common use in the vicinity of the 
Allegany ridge. It is first seen near Frostburg, eleven miles from Cumber- 
land ; it, however, abounds in the vicinity. Some of the strata I examined^ 
and found thera about an average of five feet, and in secondai'y formation. 



1S24.] Geographical View of Pennsylvania. 19 

respecting the Chesnut Ridge, and the Laurel Hill ; that, 
though not very elevated, they nevertheless exist as well 
defined mountain chains. The latter is a very extended branch 
of the system, reaching from the northern part of Pennsylva- 
nia into Alabama. This chain traverses Virginia by various 
names ; separates Vii'ginia from Kentucky as Cumberland 
mountain ; traverses Tennessee, and penetrates Alabama under 
the latter term ; and interrupted by Tennessee river, it forms 
the Muscle Shoals, and is imperceptibly merged into the cen- 
tral hills of Alabama. Like many others, this very lengthen- 
ed chain is delineated defectively in every map of Penn- 
sylvania I have seen. Similar to Chesnut Ridge, Laurel Hill 
is terminated, on our maps, near the Kiskiminitas, though in 
reality extending to near the south boundary of New- York. 

In addition to the great chains we have been surveying, 
many of minor importance might be noted ; but we have 
deemed a view of the most striking parts sufficient. 

If engrouped into one view, the mountains of Pennsylva- 
nia exhibit many very interesting points of observation. The 
Appalachian system is here upwards of one hundred and fifty 
miles wide. The particular chains do not average more than 
three miles, if so much, in breadth. 

Before proceeding farther in our review, I may be permit- 
ted to observe, that mountains are considered as the superla- 
tive of hills. In not only Pennsylvania, but in the Appala- 
chian system generally, hills and mountains are not only spe- 
cifically, but generically distinct features of nature. If this 
was not the case, the slope would, in most cases, gradually 
rise from the mouths to the sources of rivers, and no regular 
ranges of elevated ground could be found crossing the streams 
obliquely. According to common opinion, the mountains of 
the United States form the dividing ridge between the waters 
of the Atlantic slope, and those of the Mississippi and St. 
Lawrence basins. So far, however, are the mountains from 
constituting the separating line of the waters, that the real di- 
viding ridge, if it can be so called, crosses the mountains dia- 
gonally.* 

The Appalachian system is formed, as we have seen, by a 
number of collateral chains, lying nearly parallel ; each chain 
is again formed by ridges, which interlocking, or interrupted 
by rivers, extend generally in a similar direction with the 
chain to which they particularly appertain. The chains diiFer 
materially from each other in elevation and in continuity. In 
some of the chains, at each side of the system, the parts are 

* See the maps. 



20 Geographical View of Pennsylvania. [Sept. 

of very unequal height above their bases, and of tide water. 
The South-east mountain and Blue Ridge are prominent ex- 
amples.* 

The attendant map, coloured to exhibit the formations geo- 
logically, will save much verbal description, and paint to the 
eye the structure of Pennsylvania. By a reference to the 
geological map, it will be seen that the rock formations obey 
neither the mountain system nor river valleys. 

In the correct solution of anjr question arising out of the 
advance or distribution of population, the determination of 
the real surface covered with mountains, would afford extreme- 
ly satisfactory element. As far as my own personal observa- 
tion, and the present state of our geographical knowledge af- 
ford data, I have estimated the extent of mountain base in 
Pennsylvania; and on the best maps, carefully measuring 
every chain, the entire length produced, amounts to a small 
excess above 2250 miles. If the latter sum is, however, taken, 
and three miles allowed for the mean breadth of the chains, 
the mountain area will be 6750 square miles, or very nearly 
one-seventh part of the superficies of the state. 

Before examining the formations, the component soils and 
rocks, we proceed to view the river valleys of Pennsylvania. 
The state is drained by the Delaware, Susquehanna, Ohio, 
Potomac, and Genessee rivers, and at the extreme north-west 
angle by lake Erie. 

The respective river basins, or rather the sections included 
in Pennsylvania, are of very unequal extent. Delaware, Sus- 
quehanna, and Ohio, include an immense proportion of the 
whole state, and subdivide it naturally into the eastern, mid- 
dle, and western river sections. 

The following tables give the respective area of each, and 
also the smaller sections of Potomac, Gennessee, and Erie. 

Delaware river drains the counties of 











Sqi 


lare Miles. 


Acres. 


Berks, 


- 


- 


- 




950 


608,000 


Bucks, 


- 


- 


- 




640 


409,600 


Chester -1, 


- 


- 


- 




550 


352,000 


Delaware, 


- 


- 


. 




180 


115,200 


Lebanon I, 


- 


- 


. 




40 


25,600 


Lehigh, 


- 


. 


- 




360 


230,400 


Luzerne, 


- 


- 


- 




180 


115,200 


Montgomery, 


lount carried over, 




450 
3350 


288,000 


,4n 


2,144,000 




* See 


page 


12- 


15. 







1824] 



Geographical View of Pennsylvania. 



21 



Amount brought forward, 
Northampton, - - - 

Philadelphia, - - - 

Pike, . . - - 

Schuylkill |, ... 

Wayne, _ . - - 



Susquehanna drains 

Adams f » - - - 

Bedford 3, . . . 

Bradford, - - - 

Cambria f > - 

Centre, . - - 

Chester ■!» - - 

Clearfield ^®q, 

Columbia, 

Cumberland, 

Dauphin, - - - 

Franklin |j - - 

Huntingdon, 

Indiana ^Vj - - - 

Lebanon ■g'l - - - 

Luzerne -j^, 

Lycoming, - - - 

M^Kean^, - 

Mifflin, 

Northumberland, 

Perry, . - - 

Potter |, - - - 

Schuylkill -f, 

Susquehanna, 

Tioga, 

Union, . - - 

York, - - - - 



Gennssee drains \ of Potter, 

Potomac drains 

Adams |> - - 

Bedford |, - 

Franklin |» - 
Somerset ^, 



Square Miles. 
3350 
1100 

120 

850 

500 

790 



Acres. 

2,144,000 

704,000 

76,800 
544,000 
320,000 
505,600 



6710 


4,294,400 


he counties of 




350 


224,000 


1000 


640,000 


1260 


806,400 


330 


211,200 


1460 


934,400 


180 


111,200 


1450 


928,000 


630 


403,200 


630 


403,200 


550 


352,000 


280 


179,200 


1280 


819,200 


80 


51,200 


280 


179,200 


1920 


1,228,800 


2510 


1,606,400 


380 


243,200 


910 


582,400 


500 


320,000 


550 


352,000 


750 


480,000 


300 


192,000 


910 


582,400 


1180 


755,200 


600 


384,000 


1120 


716,800 


21,390 


13,685,600 


', - 1 50 


96,000 


220 


140,800 


630 


403,200 


560 


358,400 


180 


115,200 



1590 



1,017,600 



22 



-Geographical View of Pennsylvania. 



Square Miles. 
Lake Erie drains | of Erie county, 380 



[Sept. 

Acres. 

243,200 



Ohio river 


drains the counties 


of 




Allegany, 


- 


- 


_ 


810 


518,400 


Armstrong, 


- 


- 


- 


1010 


646,400 


Beaver, 


' 


- 


- 


690 


441,600 


Butler, 


- 


- 


- 


850 


544,000 


Cambria |, - 


- 


- 


- 


800 


512,000 


Clearfield -j'^. 


- 


- 


- 


160 


102,400 


Crawford, 


- 


- 


- 


1040 


665,600 


Erie 1, 


- ■ 


- 


- 


380 


243,200 


Fayette, 


- 


- 


- 


900 


576,000 


Greene, 


- 


- 


- 


640 


409,600 


Indiana -j^, - 


- 


- 


- 


680 


435,200 


Jefferson, 


- 


- 


- 


1280 


819,200 


M^Kean |, - 


- 


- 


- 


1140 


729,600 


Mercer, 


- 


- 


- 


880 


563,200 


Potter 1, 


- 


- 


- 


520 


204,800 


Somerset -y, 


. 


. 


- 


800 


512,000 


Venango, 


. 


. 


- 


1200 


768,000 


Warren, 


- 


. 


- 


900 


576,000 


Washington, 


- 


. 


- 


900 


576,000 


Westmoreland, 


- 


- 


' 


1180 


755,200 






SUMMARY. 


16,760 


10,598,400 








Delaware drains, 




_ 


. 


6,710 


4,294,400 


Susquehanna, 


- 


- 


- 


21,390 


13,685,600 


Gennessee, - 


- 


- 


- 


150 


96,000 


Potomac, 


- 


- 


- 


1,590 


1,017,600 


Ohio, - 


- 


- 


- 


16,760 


10,598,400 


Lake Erie,* 








380 


243,200 




46,980 


29,935,200 



Without reference to the comparatively minor river sections 
of Potomac, Genessee, and Erie, the surface of Pennsylvania 
is subdivided into three river valleys, Delaware, Susquehanna, 

* This aggregate still falls short of the real area of Pennsylvania, though 
considerable allowance is made for the superficies of the southern and cen- 
tral irregular counties. The estimates are made in round numbers, therefore 
the fractions do not, in many cases, exactly agree with each other. 



1824.] Geographical View of Pen7isylvania. 23 

and Ohio. The respective area is rendered sensible to the 
eye by the maps prefixed to this number. 

The range of the rivers of Pennsylvania is one of the most 
interesting subjects in all physical geography. It may be as- 
sumed as a general principle, that the mountain streams par- 
ticularly, either flow north-east or south-west, along the moun- 
tain valleys, or directly at right angles to that course, through 
the mountain chains. The conformity of the river courses to 
that of the mountains, is in a striking manner obvious in the 
Delaware and Susquehanna. 

The Delaware rises by two branches in the western spurs 
of the Catsbergs. The Cookquago to the north-west, and the 
Popachton to the south-east, flow from their sources south- 
west, about fifty miles, draining Delaware county in New- 
York. Reaching within about five miles from the north-east 
angle of Pennsylvania, the Cookquago turns to south-east, 
and continuing that course five or six miles, receives the Po- 
pachton. The united streams maintain a south-east course, 
fifty miles, to the mouth of the Nevisink, and northern extre- 
mity of New-Jersey. The Delaware here touches, and vT-ashes 
the north-west foot of the Kittatinny chain, along which it 
turns to the south-west, thirty-five miles, to the mouth of 
Broadhead's creek, from Pike and Northampton counties. 
Winding to the south, the Delaware, below the entrance of 
Broadhead's creek, breaks through the Kittatinny, and enters 
the fine valley between that chain and the Blue Ridge. At the 
north-west base of the latter, at Easton, the river again forms 
a mountain pass, and five miles farther down, another through 
the South-east mountain. At the south-east base of the lat- 
ter chain, this river once more assumes a south-east course 
after having meandered through the Kittatinny valley about 
thirty miles. 

At Trenton, thirty-five^ miles below the South-east moun- 
tain, the Delaware passes the primitive ledge, and meets the 
tide ; and five miles below, near Bristol and Bordentown, 
again turns to south-west. Passing along or near the primi- 
tive rock, this now widening stream continues about forty 
miles, receiving near Philadelphia, the Schuylkill from the 
north-west. Forming its last great bend, five or six miles be» 
low Newcastle, the bay of Delaware opens into the Atlantic 
ocean in a south-east direction. 

The entire length of the Delaware is, by comparative courses, 
from the Catsbergs to the Atlantic ocean, three hundred and 
ten miles, not quite one half being tide water. Though roll- 
ing over numerous rapids, no cataracts, in the proper mean- 
ing of the term, interrupt the navigation of the Delaware,, 



24 Geographical View of Pennsylvania. [Sept. 

which at times of moderately high water, reach, by both con- 
stituent branches, into New- York. The general course is, 
with a trifling deviation, to the west, south, and north ; the 
sources of the Cookquago and Popachton, being yery nearly in 
similar longitude with Cape May. When viewed on a map, 
the various sections of this river have the appearance of hav- 
ing been arranged artificially : the two lower bends strongly 
proving the geological influence of the mountain system.* 
Though but little elevated above the ordinary surface of the 
country through which it passes, the great primitive ledge 
pursues a direction remarkably similar to that of the Appala- 
chian chains. From Bristol to its terminating bend below New- 
castle, the Delaware river flows down the south-east margin 
of the primitive, separating the sandy shores of New-Jersey 
from the micaceous soil of Pennsylvania and Delaware. 

Like every other primary stream of the Atlantic slope, the 
navigation of the Delaware is less facile than in the early 
stage of settlement,! but admits vessels of considerable draft 
to the foot of its lowest rapid ; and ships of the largest class 
to near the mouth of the Schuylkill. 

Similar to the Susquehanna and the Potomac, the Delaware 
receives nearly all its large tributary streams from the north- 
west. Of these confluents only two, the Lehigh and Schuyl- 
kill, are of considerable magnitude. 

From the position of their valleys as channels of intercom- 
munication, and from the mineral treasures found along their 
mountain sources, the Schuylkill and Lehigh have already be- 
come of great importance. The Lehigh rises by various 
mountain branches in Northampton, Pike, Wayne, and Lu- 
zerne counties ; uniting below Stoddartsville, and forming a 
small hut precipitous river current, which pouring first to the 
south-west, gradually turns south, and south-east passes 
Mauchchunk village, and winding between mountain masses, 
finally breaks through the Kittatinny, and continuing to the 
south-east meets the north-west base of the Blue Ridge at Al- 
lentown. Jiere it turns to the north-east along the base of 
the latter chain, and passing Bethlehem joins the Delaware at 
Easton. The Lehigh is truly a mountain torrent ; there is 

* See page 12. 

•j- No adequate attention, in the United States, has yet been paid to this 
veiy serious fact. It is well attested by historical record, that agriculture, 
by opening the soil to the action of rains and consequent floods, must annu- 
ally increase the impediments to navigation in tide water rivers. The incre- 
ment of alluvial deposit, is always first and most sensibly felt, ^t the point of 
admixture between the down stream and ocean tide. The means of obviat- 
ing this evil must, in the lapse of no great time, become a prominent subject 
of statistical inquiry. 



1824.] Geographical Vietv of Pennsylvania, 25 

no other stream of equal length in the United States which 
presents so great difference of level between the points of 
source and discharge. 

In a conoparative course, it is about twenty-five miles from 
Stoddartsville to Mauch Chunk, and the fall in the intermediate 
distance 845 feet. Ten miles in a direct line below Mauch 
Chunk, the Lehigh passes the Kittatinny, and falls 245 feet in 
that short space. From the Lehigh Water Gap, or passage 
through the Kittatinny, to its junction with the Delaware^ it 
falls 205 feet, in a comparative course of thirty-five miles. 
The entire fall from Stoddartsville to Easton, 1210 feet ; com- 
parative course seventy miles. From the junction of its con- 
stituent branches below Stoddartsville to its extreme source, 
about fifteen or twenty miles, giving an entire comparative 
length to the Lehigh, of near 100 miles. The fall above Stod- 
dartsville, probably amounts to 500 feet ; and if so, this rapid 
river falls upwards of 1700 feet in 100 miles ; and what may 
be considered in a peculiar manner remarkable, no actual ca- 
taract worthy notice, exists in all its course. Above the Water 
Gap, the bed of the Lehigh lies at the base of steep or preci- 
pitous mountains, rising in most places from the margin of the 
stream. The scenery is in a peculiar manner wild, bold, pic- 
turesque, and romantic. Below the Kittatinny, the features 
of nature are less grand along the banks, but still follow, in a 
rich succession of strongly contrasted and elegant landscape. 
The varied character of its shores is preserved to its final 
egress into its recipient at Easton, and at all future time this 
river will afford an ample reward to the traveller. 

The Lehigh is now rendered navigable by dams, and fall- 
ing locks for some distance above Mauch Chunk.* This 
very useful and arduous work has been effected by the Le- 
high Coal and Navigation Company, under the direction of 
Messrs. White and Hazard, the superintending engineers. The 
discovery of Anthracite coal, made in the vicinity, led to the 
improvement of the river navigation. By reference to the 
maps, it will be seen, that the coal strata between the Lehigh 
and Schuylkill, are in the transition or inclined region of rocks. 
It may be observed that rivers flowing over transition rocks, 
are, in most instances, very much impeded by rapids, but very 
seldom have perpendicular falls. Real cataracts almost uni- 
formly exist in secondary formation. 

The Schuylkill rises in and drains about the five-eighths of 
Schuylkill county. Formed by two branches, which unite im- 

* A detailed description of this navigation will be given in a future num- 
ber of the Repository. 

Vol. I.—D No. t. 



26 Geographical View of Pennsylvania, [Seft. 

mediately above and pass through the Kittatinny mountain 
seven miles south-east from Orvvicksburg. Below the Water 
Gap, or passage through the Kittatinny, the Schuylkill turns 
to nearly south, in which direction it continues through the 
Blue Ridge at Reading, after having received Maiden creek 
from the north- east, and the Tulpehocken above that town, from 
the north-west. Below the Blue Ridge this river again winds 
to south-east, passes the South-east mountain above Potts- 
town, and receiving the Perkiomen and some lesser creeks 
from the north, crosses the primitive ledge above, and joins 
the Delaware below Philadelphia. 

The entire length of the Schuylkill, by comparative courses, 
is about one hundred miles, twenty above and eighty below 
the Kittatinny mountains. 

A strong resemblance is perceivable between the Schuylkill 
and the Lehigh, though the scenery along the former is less 
rugged than that which skirts the latter stream. Flowing 
from the same mountain valley, the soil and mineral produc- 
tions are in a great measure similar on the two rivers. The 
subject will be more amply noticed in a subsequent part of 
the Repository ; but I may here observe, that in the distribu- 
tion of the Anthracite coal, very great diversity exists be- 
tween the situation of the mass on the Mauch Chunk moun- 
tain, and any other with which I have been made acquainted, 
in either the basins of Delaware or Susquehanna. That on 
the Mauch Chunk lies in an immense body on the ridge of 
the mountain, with little of any inclination to the horizon, and 
with a very thin stratum of incumbent earth. The mines on 
the Schuylkill, and those near Wilkes-Barre, dip like the other 
accompanying incumbent and decumbent strata. 

The Schuylkill is now navigable by canals and locks to 
Reading, and will soon be so to the coal mines, ten miles 
above Orwicksburg. The Union Canal Company is employed 
also in completing a connection between the Susquehanna and 
Schuylkill, by the Swatara and Tulpehocken valleys. 

The Susquehanna, in many other respects remarkable, is 
peculiarly so as rising on the central secondary formation, and 
piercing the mountains obliquely, and reaching the Atlantic 
tides, after having passed all the intermediate formations. This 
immense stream enters Pennsylvania by two great branches, 
the Susquehanna proper, and the Chemung or Tioga. I have 
often had occasion to observe, that every river had its own in- 
dividual physiognomy. This observation applies, in a very 
striking manner, to the Susquehanna. The general bends of 
the latter stream conform, in an astonishing degree, to those 
of the Delaware ; and a comparative view on a map must con- 



1824.J Geographical View of Pennsylvania. 27 

vince every mind that some general structure of the country- 
through which they flow, must have modified and directed the 
respective courses of those two rivers.. Below their junction 
at Tioga Point, the united streams of the Susquehanna and 
Chemung flow a little south of east, fifteen miles, to the foot 
of the Appalachian system, below Towanda. Leaving the 
secondary, and entering on the transition, the now considera- 
ble stream turns to south-east, and following that general 
course fifty miles, breaks through several chains, and finally 
at the mouth of. the LackaM-^annock, nine miles above Wilkes- 
Barre, enters the Wyoming valley, and turns to south-west; 
continuing the latter course near seventy miles down the 
mountain valleys to Northumberland and Sunbury, and to the 
mouth of the West branch. In the entire distance from Tioga 
Point to Sunbury, the Susquehanna receives no tributary 
stream of forty miles direct length ; the Towanda, Wyalus- 
singyTunkhannock, Lackawannock, Fishing Creek, and some 
lesser branches, are mere mountain creeks, rapid, but not more 
than from twenty- five to fifty-five miles general course. 

Including all its higher north-east branches, the Susque- 
hanna is peculiar in the structure of its valleys. Wide bot- 
toms of two, and sometimes three stages, spread along the 
convex side of the bends, whilst mountains of more or less 
elevation, rise on both sides of these spreading vales. Exu- 
berant fertility is, at a single step, followed by rocky and ste- 
rile steeps. The natural timber of the bottoms in a great mea- 
sure different from that on the mountains. In the former, sugar- 
maple, black walnut, elm, beech, and others trees indicative of 
a productive soil abound ; on the slopes of the mountains, 
pine, oak, and chesnut, and above the Lawahannock, hem- 
lock, are the prevalent timber trees. As a navigable stream, 
the Susquehanna is vnuch less interrupted by rapids or dan- 
gerous shoals, than from the tortuous course it pursues through 
an extensive mountain system could be expected. It is also 
remarkable, that where the various branches of this river pass 
the respective chains, rapids seldom, and perpendicular falls, 
no where exist. 

The Western branch is, in all its extent, a river of Pennsyl- 
vania. Rising far within the secondary formation, its extreme 
western source in Indiana, reaches within less than thirty-five 
miles from the Allegany river, at Kittanning. Flowing north- 
east about seventy miles across Clearfield, it receives the Sin- 
namahoning from the north-west in the south-west angle of 
Lycoming county. Below its junction with the Sinnamahon- 
ing, the West branch continues north-east fifteen miles, and 
thence to south-east twenty miles, to the mouth of Bald Eagle 



28 Geographical Viezu of Fennnylvania. [Sept, 

creek from Centre county. Below Bald Eagle, the course is 
a little north of east, thirty-five miles, to Pennsborough, re- 
ceiving in the intermediate distance, from the north, Pine 
creek, Lycoming, and Loyalsock. From Pennsborough the 
course is nearly south, twenty-five miles, to the mouth of the 
North-east branch, and thirty-five from thence to that 
of the Juniata. It may be observed that this long southern 
reach of the Susquehanna has its counterpart in the Delaware. 
About eight miles below the entrance of Juniata, the Susque- 
hanna, having again assumed a south-eastern course, passes 
the Kittatinny mountains ; and ten miles below that chain, the 
Blue Ridge. Maintaining the latter course sixty miles below 
the Blue Ridge, this great river is lost in the tides of Chesa- 
peake bay.* 

Juniata, the south-west branch of Susquehanna, rises in and 
drains the northern part of Bedford county. The sources of 
the Juniata are in the eastern slopes of the Allegany chain ; 
and flowing twenty miles nearly east, passes Bedford, and 
breaking through several mountain chains, turns abruptly to a 
course a little east of north, forty miles, receives the Franks- 
town branch below and near the borough of Huntingdon, in 
Huntingdon county. The general course of Frankstown 
branch is from the north-west to south-east, and below their 
junction, the united streams follow that course fifteen miles, 
breaking through Jack's mountain. Again inflected to north- 
east, the Juniata leaves Huntingdon and enters Mifflin county, 
and pursuing that direction near thirty miles, passes Lewis- 
town, and again winding to south-east, breaks through Shade 
mountain into Tuscarora valley. Crossing that valley, in a 
course of ten miles, reaches the north-west base of Tuscarora 
mountain, down which it flows about ten miles, where, near 
Millerstown, it pierces the latter mountain, and once more 
turning to south-east, enters on Perry county, over which it 
flows fifteen miles, where it finally mingles with the Susque- 
hanna. 

Like every other branch of the Susquehanna, the Juniata 
is as remarkable for its rapids as for its exemption from per- 
pendicular fails. Though originating in, and having its entire 
course amongst craggy mountains, it is navigable, at high 
water, to near Bedford. In speculative opinions on the means, 

* It was an observation of the late Mr. Latrobe, that Chesapeake Bay itself 
was only the continuation of the Susquehanna, below the head of tide water. 
If this geographical, or rather h)'drographical principle is correct, then the 
Patapsco, Patuxent, Potomac, Rappahannock, York, and .Tames Rivers, are 
confluents of the Susquehanna, whicli, with such extension, would constitute 
the largest river of the world in proportion to length of course. 



1824.] Geographical View of Pennsylvania. 29 

and most suitable route, to form a water communication be- 
tween the Chesapeake basin and the valley of Ohio, the Ju- 
niata has been conspicuously held in view. In such investi- 
gations, relative height above the ocean is a most important 
element. Ttie close of this article will shew the general dif- 
ference of level between the sources and mouths of the Penn- 
sylvania rivers, as far as they have been ascertained with any 
adequate precision. 

Potomac, though drawing but a very trivial part of its wa- 
ters from Pennsylvania, demands attention in this sketch, 
from the probability that its channel may be chosen by the 
general government, as a canal route between the Atlantic 
slope and Ohio valley. The Potomac is a real mountain river, 
deriving its sources from nearly the highest table land of the 
Appalachian system. The extreme western fountain of the 
north branch of Potomac, is in the south-east slopes of the 
Allegany or Backbone chain, N. Lat. 39° 10'. Flowing north- 
east along the foot of Allegany to the mouth of Savage creek, 
or rather river, thirty-five miles, the Potomac turns to south- 
east through Will's mountain into Cumberland valley, which 
it crosses about ten miles, where it is again turned to north-east 
by another lateral chain. Continuing north-east twenty miles, 
reaches the town of Cumberland. At the latter place occurs 
another abrupt bend, through a mountain pass, into the South 
Branch valley. The latter stream is of much greater magni- 
tude than that of the Potomac proper. Rising by numerous 
creeks in Pendleton county, Virginia, as far south as N. Lat. 
38° 20'. In a general comparative course of one hundred 
miles, the South branch becomes a fine navigable river. Be- 
low the mouth of the South branch, the Potomac gradually re- 
assumes a north-east direction, which it preserves, about thirty 
miles, to Hancock's town, where it turns to south-east, and 
pierces Sideling hill chain, and in a few miles lower down the 
Kittatinny, entering the Great Conococheague valley. From 
Hancock's town to the entrance of Conococheague creek, the 
course of the Potomac is a little south of east twenty-five 
miles. Below the latter creek, the river inclines to south-east 
by south, twenty-five miles, to the north-west base of the Blue 
Ridge, and mouth of Shenandoah. 

Rising in, and draining Augusta county, in Virginia, the 
South branch of Shenandoah rises below N, Lat. 38°. Aug- 
mented by innumerable mountain streams, it flows from Au- 
gusta, over Rockingham and Shenandoah, into Frederick 
county, where joined by the North branch, and continuing a 
general course of north-east, over Frederick and JelFerson 
counties, unites with the Potomac at Harper's ferry, after a 



30 Geographical View of Pennsylvania. [Sept, 

comparative course of about one hundred and fifty miles. At 
their junction, the volume of the Shenandoah yields very lit- 
tle in magnitude to that of the Potomac. The united waters 
immediately break through the Blue Ridge, and continuing 
South-east about fifty miles, mingles vi^ith the Chesapeake tides 
at Georgetown, within the District of Columbia. The gene- 
ral comparative course of the Potomac above tide water, is, 
by the south branch, about two hundred, by the Potomac pro- 
per, one hundred and fifty, and by the Shenandoah one hun- 
dred and sixty miles. "* 

Like those of the Delaware and Susquehanna, the great 
confluents of the Potomac are from the right bank. Savage 
river and Will's creek, from Allegany ; Conococheague, from 
Washington ; and Monocacy from Frederick county in Ma- 
ryland, are comparatively trivial, when compared with the 
branches of Potomac derived from Virginia. 

At Cumberland, Potomac reaches within five, and at Han- 
cock's town, within two miles of the south boundary of Penn- 
sylvania. The extent of the Potomac valley included, in that 
state, is given in the table, page 22. 

Leaving the Atlantic slope, and viewing a general map of 
the United States, we at once perceive a great river valley, 
stretching from Pocahontas county, Virginia, over western 
Pennsylvania, into New- York. This valley extends nearly 
due north and south, at an angle of about forty-five degrees, 
to the range of the Appalachian mountains, and reaches from 
N. Lat. 38° 30', to N. Lat. 42' 20'. The extremes giving 
source to two rivers ; that of the north to the Allegany, and 
that of the sovith to the Monongahela. These two streams 
flowing directly towards each other, meet at Pittsburg, very 
nearly at the middle point of the valley. Their united water 
taking the name of Ohio, turns to the west, or rather north-west, 
as far as the entrance of Big Beaver river. With a very par- 
tial exception, western Pennsylvania is drained by the Alle- 
gany and Monongahela. 

Though the lower part of its course is but little inclined 
west of south, the general bends of the Allegany conform, in 
a very striking manner, to the structure of the Delaware, Sus- 
quehanna, and Potomac, and gives another conclusive proof 
of the extension of the Appalachian system far beyond where 
it protrudes elevated mountain chains. Having its source in 
Potter county, in Pennsylvania, and interlocking with the 
head branches of the Susquehanna and Genessee, the Allegany 

* These courses are comparative, and fall, in general result, nearly one- 
half short of that by the particular bends. 



1824.] Geographical Viexv of Pennsylvania. 32 

flows north-west about fifty miles, into Cataraugus county. 
New- York. Abruptly turning to south-west, and preserving 
that general course nearly one hundred miles, and receiving 
French creek from the north-west, it thence bends to south- 
east forty miles, to the mouth of the Mahoning. About the 
middle of the latter course. Clarion river and Red Bank 
creek, two large branches, enter from the north-east. From 
Mahoning to Pittsburg, the general course is again south-west 
about fifty miles. 

Kiskiminitas, a very considerable accessory stream of the 
Allegany river, rises in the mountain valley between the Alle- 
gany and Chesnut Ridge chains, and flowing north-west, 
breaks through Chesnut Ridge and Laurel Hill, and after a 
comparative course of seventy-five miles, unites with the Al- 
legany, near midway between the mouth of Mahoning and 
Pittsburg. 

Mahoning and Red Bank creeks, have their sources in Ches- 
nut Ridge, and with each, a course of about thirty-five miles; 
the former north-west, and the latter south-west, join the Al- 
legany in Armstrong county. Clarion river"^ has interlocking 
sources with those of Sinnemahoning and the Allegany river. 
The Red Bank rises in the same region with Clarion river and 
Sinnemahoning; and Mahoning with Red Bank and the west 
branch of Susquehanna. 

In point of surface drained, Kiskiminitas is the largest con- 
fluent of the Allegany, and having interlocking sources with 
those of the west branch of Susquehanna, Juniata, and Yough- 
iogany, seems to oiFer to the eye the most facile link of in- 
tercommunication between the valleys of the Ohio and Sus- 
quehanna, north of the Potomac. 

Allegany river receives but two confluents of moment from 
the right; those are French and Conewango creeks. The latter 
rises in Chatauque county. New- York, by three branches, the 
Chatauque, Casadauga, and Conewango. These unite in New- 
York, and forming a navigable stream, assumes a south course, 
enters Warren county, Pennsylvania, and falls into Allegany 
at the town of Warren, after a comparative course of forty 
miles. 

French creek has its source in the extreme south-west an- 
gle of New- York, and increased by numerous branches from 
Erie and Crawford counties, Pennsylvania, forms a navigable 
river at Meadville. Flowing to the south-east from Mead- 

* Toby's creek, as formerly designated, I am informed, is known in tlie 
county it drains, by the name of Clarion river. The change is in every re- 
spect an improvement, as a stream of more than seventy miles comparative 
course, cannot with any propriety be called a creek. 



32 Geographical Fieiv of Pennsylvania. [Sept. 

vilie, twenty-five miles, French creek is lost in Allegany river, 
at Franklin, in Venango county. The entire comparative 
course of French creek is about eighty miles. 

There is no other feature in the hydrography" of the United 
States more remarkable than the country from which Cha- 
tauque and French creek have their sources. The extreme 
north-west waters of the former, flow from within three, and 
those of the latter from within five miles, of the margin of 
Lake Erie. This very important fact will be more particu- 
larly noticed, and its bearing on navigable communication 
shewn, in the sequel. 

Taken as in a state of nature, the Allegany and its branches 
are the recipients of the northern part of the great western 
basin of Pennsylvania, and are but little impeded by falls^ 
though rapid as to current, from the declivity of their plane 
of motion. 

The Monongahela, formed by two branches, the Mononga- 
hela proper, and Cheat river, rising in Pocahontas, Randolph^ 
Harrison, Lewis, Monongahela, and Preston counties, of Vir- 
ginia, unite two miles within the south boundary of Pennsyl- 
vania. The general length, above Pennsylvania, about one 
hundred miles, in nearly a north course. Preserving the lat- 
ter direction, sixty miles in Pennsylvania, and receiving the 
Youghiogany from the south-east, the Monongahela mingles 
with the Allegany at Pittsburg, and form the Ohio. 

The various branches of the Monongahela, which derive 
their sources from the western chains of the Appalachian S3's- 
tem, sim.ilar to the Potomac, claim a more than ordinary share 
of attention, as presenting the connecting links of a proposed 
line of canal improvement. Cheat river flows from the north- 
western slope of Allegany mountain, and draining the eastern 
part of Randolph county, passes Chesnut Ridge, enters Pres- 
ton county, and there a navigable stream continues north, to 
within five miles from the south boundary of Pennsylvania. 
Turning to the west through Laurel Hill, and thence north- 
west, crosses the south line of Pennsylvania, and unites with 
Monongahela. 

Youghiogany rises in the extreme south-western angle of 
Maryland, between the sources of Potomac and Cheat rivers. 
Pursuing a northern course over Maryland into Pennsylvania, 
and augmented by Castleman's river, its northern branch, the 
Youghiogany, turns to north-west, and breaking through Ches- 
nut Ridge and Laurel Hill, joins the Monongahela at M'Kees- 
port, eighteen miles above Pittsburg. This is a fine mountain 
stream, which in all seasons, except in periods of long drought, 
contains more than suflicient water for a supply of the most 



3824.] Geographical View of Pennsyhania. 33 

capacious canal ; general comparative course, about one hun- 
dred miles ; thirty in Maryland, and seventy in Pennsylvaniao 
The Youghiogany heads with the Cheat branch of Mononga» 
hela, with the north branch of Potomac, and by Castleman's 
river, with Juniata and Kiskiminitas. Should the Chesapeake 
and Ohio Canal be seriously undertaken, the channel of the 
Youghiogany, from relative position, presents the most direct 
route to unite the waters of the Potomac with those of Mo- 
nongahela.* 

At Pittsburg, the Ohio is formed, as we have seen, by 
the confluent waters of Allegany and Monongahela. The 
former is the principal stream, flowing with a more rapid cur- 
rent than its rival. From Pittsburg to Beaver river, the Ohio 
pursues a north-west course twenty-five miles; thence wind- 
ing to the west twenty miles, in which it leaves Pennsylvania, 
and enters Ohio. Within the latter state, the Ohio river in- 
flects to a course a little west of south, seventy miles, reach- 
ing in that direction, nearly the same latitude with the south 
boundary of Pennsylvania. The peculiar courses of the Mo- 
nongahela and Ohio, forms one of the most remarkable inter- 
mediate peninsulas presented by the topography of the United 
States. The two streams flow in very nearly opposite direc- 
tions ; the intervening space from thirtyfive to forty miles 
wide, and with a mean length of sixty miles. Though hilly 
rather than mountainous, this peninsula is elevated to from 
600 to 1000 feet in the dividing line of its waters, above 
the adjacent rivers. A number of creeks, none of which can 
exceed a comparative course of twenty-five miles, are pour- 
ed from the interior spine into the respective recipientSb 
The dividing ridge, is evidently continued north of Ohio 
river, broken by that stream a few miles below Pittsburg* 
The northern extension is continued, inflecting between the 
western sources of Allegany, and the eastern sources of Big 
Beaver river, and is finally lost on the south-eastern shores of 
Lake Erie ; the southern, stretching between the confluents 
of Ohio and Monongahela rivers, mingles with the Appala- 
chian chains, between the sources of the latter and Little Ken- 
hawa. This ridge is the western buttress of the upper basin 
of Ohio, and affords a very striking example of the real dif- 
ference between a chain of hills and one of mountains. 

The descent from the rivers to the Western ridge of Penn- 
sylvania is so gradual, and the hills scattered in such promis* 
cuous winding, through the sources of the streams, that an 
ascent of six or seven hundred feet, in a few miles, is imper-* 

* See Sertion in 

Vol. L--t»*F. No. l. 



34 Geographical View of Penjisyhania. [Sejtv 

ceptible ; on the contrary, the mountain chains extend in re- 
gu'ar lines uninfluenced, in their direction, by the water 
courses, and are abrupt and steep in their declivities. The 
mountains seem to have existed previous to the rivers, whilst 
the hills apj)ear to have been formed by ithe abrasion of water. 

Big Beaver, the first river which enters Ohio, pours its cur- 
rent from the north, and falls into its recipient, twenty-five miles 
below the confluence of the Allegany and Monongahela. Big 
Beaver is formed by the Mahoning, Shenango, Neshanock, and 
Conequenessing creeks. The Shenango rises in Ashtabula 
county of Ohio, and Crawford of Pennsylvania, within twelve 
miles from the south-east shore of Lake Erie, interlocking 
sources with those of Grand river, Coneaut, and French creek, 
and pursuing a nearly south course over Mercer, receives the 
Conequenessing from the north-east, and entering Beaver 
county, unites with the Mahoning, and forms Big Beaver. 

The Mahoning is In reality the main branch ; rising in Co- 
lumbiana, Stark, Trumbull, and Portage counties, Ohio ; its 
course is first nearly north, thirty miles, to near Warren in 
Trumbull. Winding to south-east, it pursues that course 
thirty-five miles, entering Pennsylvania in the south-west an- 
gle of Mercer, and joining the Shenango at N. Lat. 41°, about 
two miles within Beaver county. Below the junction of the 
Mahoning* and Shenango, Big Beaver flows a little east of 
south, twenty miles, into Ohio river. Conequenessing is the 
eastern constituent stream of Beaver, draining the peninsula 
between the Alleganv, Ohio, Big Beaver, and Shenango rivers. 

The valley ot Big Beaver is nearly circular, and about se- 
venty miles diameter ; area 3850 square miles. It is worthy 
of remark, that the general courses are nearly on a direct north- 
west line ; of the Youghiogany, below the mouth of Castle- 
man's river, Monongahela and Ohio, from the mouth of Yough- 
iogany to that of Big Beaver ; and the latter and Mahoning, 
to about three miles above Warren. This range of navigable 
water is upwards of one hundred and thirty miles direct, and 
from one hundred and eighty to two hundred miles, follow- 
ing the sinuosities of the streams. 

The sources of the Mahoning interlock with those of the 
Tascarawas branch of Muskingum, and Cayahoga, and Grand 
river, of Lake Erie.f 

We have thus completed a general delineation of the moun- 

* The confused nomenclature of the rivers and mountains of the United 
States, strike the geographer at every step. In the inclosed sketch, we have 
found two vivers Mahoning, within fifty miles of each other. Such repeti- 
tions are frequent, and produce an oppressive perplesity. 

t See Section III. 



1824.] History of Pennsylvania, 35 

tain chains and river valleys of Pennsylvania, and extended 
our sketches sufficiently, to give the connections with the ad- 
jacent states. This is only to draft the skeleton of the natu- 
ral geography of the region under review. It remains to examine 
the component rocks of the mountain chains ; the formation of 
the mountains and valleys ; the relative slope and height of 
the mountains and valleys ; and the facilities afforded to na- 
tural and artificial transportation by land and water. The 
geographical section of this number can be only considered 
as a preface, or introduction to the much more important in- 
quiry which is to follow in the numbers immediately subse- 
quent to the present. 



SECTION II. 

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Circumstances of a peculiar nature and primary interest, 
are interwoven, not only into the colonial history of Pennsyl- 
vania, but also into that of the parent state, which produced 
the existence of sucli a colony. As a colony, it was establish- 
ed under the influence of, and direct emigration of men insti- 
gated by motives, in many respects essentially different from 
those which led to any other English, or indeed any other Eu- 
ropean colony in America. The primeval character of its 
founders gave colour and texture to its institutions, and to the 
social features of societv- Pennsylvania continues to exhibit 
much of the pristine materials of its structure, admixed with 
other substances more or less discordant. To catch those in- 
termingling shades, and to delineate their varieties with truth 
of design and justice of colouring, is the duty of the histo- 
rian. I enter upon the execution of the task, with that unde- 
finable anxiety which all men must feel who engage to per- 
form an enterprise of such magnitude. 

Long habituated to consider a competent knowledge of our 
colonial, as indispensable to a due comprehension of our in- 
dependent history, I first open that of Pennsylvania, by biiefly 
developing the causes, and tracing the events, which preceded 
and produced, her political situation and importance, at the 
epoch of that revolution which eventuated in creating the 
United States. 

It is also a due consideration of the dependence of the in- 
dividual colonial history of Pennsylvania upon that of her 



36 History of Fennsi/lvania, {Bzrt. 

more ancient sister colonies, that has induced me to preface 
the latter by a brief sketch of the former. 

The English North American colonies were founded upoK 
very dissonant principles, and were of three species : 

First, Royal grants, ruled immediately by governors, whose 
authority emanated from the crown, and who personally re- 
presented the king. 

Second, Royal proprietary grants, governed in the name of 
the proprietary. 

Third, Voluntary associations of individuals, who, from the 
outset of their establishment, were ruled by goi'ernors of their 
own choice, and who never submitted to royal negative, either 
direct or indirect. 

The colonies founded under royal grants were, in many re- 
spects, proconsular ; for although, in every instance, sooner or 
later, the colony assumed self-legislation, the royal represen- 
tative retained the power of absolute veto. 

Qf the proprietary royal grants, Maryland and Pennsylva- 
nia, were very prominent examples. Indeed, in the latter, the 
extremely complex provisions of its charter, laid the solid 
fouhdation for that series of perpetually recurring disputes 
between the proprietary governors and the provincial assem- 
blies, which distracted the government during the period of 
its existence as a colony. The vague expressions, also, of 
both charters, involved the proprietaries, and people of Penn-* 
sylvania and Maryland, in an embittered contest respecting 
their mutual limits, which endured upwards of seventy years, 
and gave birth to rancorous feelings, which have not yet en- 
tirely subsided. The governor's power of inqualified nega-^ 
tive, was more frequently used ; particularly in money bills, 
in Pennsylvania, than in any other English North American 
colony ; and as will be seen in the sequel, in a great measure 
nullified the best provisions of the charter. In all the colo- 
nies, where it could be exercised, the veto of the representa- 
tives of the crown, contributed more than all other causes, to 
create and foster amongst the colonists, an inveterate spirit of 
suspicion and resistance. The English North American co- 
lonies, although in some respects proconsular, were not, how- 
ever, provinces formed by assumption or conquest. The ori- 
ginal adventurers, and more especially, those who removed to 
America under the authority of a charter, brought with them 
all the rights of Englishmen. The value of those immuni- 
ties were known and cherished. The crown of England, and 
its minions in America, seem to have been constantly insti- 
gated by a spirit of encroachment. Thus, exertions of power 
on one hand, and sterp resistance to its advances on the other. 



1824.] History of Pennsylvania. Sf 

created the germ of revolution, at the earliest epoch of En- 
glish settlement on the North American coast. Deriving 
from the parent country, their language, laws, religious creeds, 
and their literature, the early settlers in America, and their 
posterity, were naturally inclined to love and venerate their 
fellow subjects in Europe, and to view their common govern- 
ment as the highest effort of human wisdom ; but these con- 
ciliatory sentiments were stifled, by perpetually recurring acts 
of aggression on the part of those sent to govern the colonies. 

" Courage, wisdom, integrity, and honour, are not to be 
measured by the sphere assigned them to act in, but by the 
trials they undergo, and the vouchers they furnish : and if so 
manifested, need neither robes or titles to set them off"* 

Upon these principles, no department of civil history de- 
mands from mankind such profound attention as the Anglo- 
American colonial. In these early establishments, the an- 
cient Saxon free institutions were implanted, guarded, and 
flourished, whilst fading or expiring in Europe. It affords, to 
a well regulated mind, a cheerful retrospect to scan, the pro- 
gress of new formed societies, amongst the members of whom 
the most exalted principles of ethics, jurisprudence, and legis- 
lation, were not alone preserved, but received a more solid 
sanction in the hearts of men from contrast, with their retro-, 
gradation in their pristine seats. 

With such general views of our subject, we enter on a sue-, 
cinct survey of those English colonies which were planted 
previous to the date of the charter of Pennsylvania. 

When America was first discovered by Europeans, the peo- 
ple of that part of the earth, and their rulers, seem to have, 
with one accord, considered the newly found regions the pro- 
perty of the first who could disembark on its shores. In a 
struggle for division of so rich a prize, Spain, Portugal, Eng- 
land, and France, were the most conspicuous competitors. 
Expeditions were sent out under the authority of each of these 
governments. Henry VII. then king of England, sent to 
America, in May 1497, John Cabot, who, with his son Sebas- 
tian, discovered, and coasted North America, from New- 
foundland to the point of Florida. The Cabots were the first 
individuals recorded in history, who, under the authority of 
any European government, visited the south-east coasts of 
North America. There still, however, exists strong evidence, 
that, as simple fishermen, the Basques, or Bretons, from the 
north-west part of France, had visited the coasts of Green- 

* Benjamin Franklin's Historical Review of the Constitution and Govern- 
ment of Pennsylvania, p. 5. 



38 History of Pennsylvania, [Sept. 

land and adjacent parts, before any discoveries were made of 
the same places, by national authority. During the long pe- 
riod which intervened, from the voyages of the Cabots to the 
actual colonization by both, the English and French nations 
seem to have preserved a nearly equal pace in the career of 
discovery. 

An examination of the intermediate history of England will 
afford solid reasons why the govei-nment and people of that 
kingdom did not sooner avail themselves of their claims in 
North America. Under the Tudors, neither the population 
or resources of England, were adequate to distant coloniza- 
tion, or even commercial exertion ; and to physical weakness 
were superadded political and religious contention. 

The immense treasures in gold and silver procured from 
America, by the Spaniards, also tended to retard the northern 
nations of JEurope from forming establishments on the oppos- 
ing part of the newly discovered continent. Every nation 
considered America as a seat of mines, and when unable to 
procure the precious metals, disregarded every other advan- 
tage. Although slighted nationally, North America attracted 
the individual attention of many Englishmen, in the early part 
of the sixteenth century. In 1502, Hugh Elliott and Thomas 
Ashurst, merchants of Bristol, with some other associates, ob- 
tained letters patent from Henry VII, with the avoM'^ed inten- 
tion of colonizing the newly discovered regions. The origi- 
nal of this patent in Latin, is preserved in Hazard's collections. 
It was the first English governmental grant respecting any 
part of America ; but fell useless, no ostensive steps being 
ever taken to carry its provisions into effect.* 

The French were more attentive to North America, than 
were the English at this early period ; and the former, much 
sooner than the latter, perceived the true source of wealth of- 
fered, by the then, very imperfectly known wilds of the re- 
cently discovered continent. In 1504, the Breton and Nor- 
man fishermen, had a regular trade and establishments on 
Newfoundland, which at that time included the whole coast 
from Labrador to Florida.f The Bretons and Normans, how- 

* The actual want of population at that tirrt^, in all Europe, but more par- 
ticularly in the northern parts, opposed an insuperable barrier to coloniza- 
tion. In 1500, it is rendered probable, from concurrent circumstances, that 
the English crown did not include, under its subjection, three millions of 
people. Nautical skill and commercial enterprise were also still more con- 
tracted, than were the number of inhabitants. The discoverers of North 
America, under English authority, were Italians ; no English seaman of that 
age appears to have been competent to the execution of such an enterprise. 

f When the Cabots discovered North America, they gave to the parts they 
visited, the name of Newfoundland, which it retained until superseded by 



1824.] History of Pennsylvania. 39 

ever, only visited the north-east parts, along the coast of the 
island of Newfoundland and vicinity. 

John Denys, a native of Rouen, sailed, in 1506, from Hon- 
fleur to the Gulf of Newfoundland, and on his return to France, 
drew a map of that inland sea, its islands, and adjacent shores. 

Denys was followed, in 1508, by Thomas Aubert, from 
Dieppe. The latter was the discoverer of the St. Lawrence 
river, and the country now called Lower Canada. On his re- 
turn to Europe, Aubert carried with him some of the native 
savages. 

The Baron of St. I^ery, in 1524, made some abortive at- 
tempts at colonization in North America. The failure of St. 
Lery's design, and many other adverse causes, gave a check 
to French enterprize, and prevented actual colonization on the 
part of that nation in New France, for upwards of eighty 
years afterwards. Though without settlements by land, ne- 
vertheless the French fisheries flourished, and the knowledge 
of the country by that people, became annually more accurate. 

The events of a voyage made by a Florentine, John Ver- 
rezzana, in the service of Francis I. king of France, are very 
imperfectly known. From the scanty records on the subject, 
it appears, that in 1524, Verrezzana reached the south-east 
coast of North America, and visited its shores from Florida 
to Nova Scotia. This discoverer was lost, and with him, in 
in great part, the notes of his operations. 

Though suspended in their efforts to either colonize or pur- 
sue their researches in America, the views of the French were 
constantly directed towards this continent. In 1534, Philip 
Chabot, admiral of France, represented so strongly to the 
king, the multiplied advantages which Spain was then deriv- 
ing from her colonies, that James Cartier of St. Maloes, by 
royal commission, sailed from that port, April 20th, on a voy- 
age of discovery, with two small ships and one hundred and 
twenty men. In his first voyage, Cartier sailed round the 

that of Virginia, imposed by Queen Elizabeth in 1584. At a subsequent pe- 
riod to the discoveries of the Cabots, the Spaniards discovered the south- 
west sections of the same coast, and named it Florida. Newfoundland and 
Florida, therefore included all the coast of North America betvi^een the mouths 
of the Mississippi and St. Lawrence. The extremes on the Atlantic ocean, 
still retain their original appellations, whilst the intermediate space has been 
parcelled, and variously designated. 

It is a real subject of regret, that either Virginia or Florida, had not pre- 
vailed, and been preserved over the whole Atlantic coast now in the United 
States. They are both fine sonorous names, and certainly preferable, as ge- 
neral terms, to the awkward expression United States. Either of the former 
would have been distinctive; the latter applies vaguely, to any combination 
of states into oii ■ general confederacy, and always demands circumloGUtion^ 
to render its partic«ki' application definite. 



40 Jtiistwy of Pennsylvania i [SEjpt. 

island of Newfoundland, discovered and named the bay des 
Cbaleurs, on the continent, and having afterwards reached N* 
Lat. 51', on the Labrador coast, returned to Europe. 

In his second voyage, 1535, Cartier penetrated the St. Law- 
rence as high as the island of Hochelaga, now Montreal, and 
having treacherously seized some of the natives, returned with 
them to France. Though disgraced by his conduct towards 
the savages of America, Cartier appears to have been the first 
individual from the north-west of Europe, who conceived an 
idea of the true wealth to be derived from the regions he baa 
explored. He represented, in his report to the king, the great 
advantages which were offered by the fur trade alone ; how- 
ever, not having gold and silver mines in his list, no notice 
was taken of his representations. 

Nearly forty years had elapsed, from the discoveries made 
by the Cabots, before any serious attempt was made by the 
English nation to avail itself of the claim. In 1536, a gen- 
tleman of London, at his own risk, though countenanced by 
the king, Henry VIII. , undertook a voyage to America. This 
adventurer, by the name of Hore, was accompanied by one 
hundred and twenty persons, of whom twenty-five or thirty 
were men of education and character. Hore's expedition was, 
in a peculiar manner, unfortunate. After having visited Cape 
Breton and some other places in the gulf of St, Lawrence, the 
party were reduced to the utmost extremity of want and 
wretchedness ; many were literally starved. Falling in with 
a French fishing vessel, they seized her, and took from her as 
much provision as enabled the survivors to return to Europe. 
The facts attending this voyage, it has been observed, prove^ 
that the English were then utterly ignorant of the inexhausti*^ 
ble stores of fish to be found in those seas ; and that upwards 
of thirty years after a regular fishery had been established by 
the French, that the English had not attempted a participa- 
tion in that rich source of wealth and subsistence. From the 
sequel it will be seen, that strong reasons concur to support 
the conclusion, that the voyage of Hore contributed to turn 
the immediate attention of the English nation to the American 
seas. In 1548, the English fisheries had become an object of 
national legislation. In that year, an act of parliament was 
passed, to prohibit the exaction, from English fishermen and 
mariners, going in the service of the fishery at Newfoundland, 
of money, fish, or other reward^ by any officer of the admi- 
ralty, under any pretext whatever. This was the first act of 
the English parliament relative to America.* 

♦ Hakluyt, vol, I. p. 531— UI. p. 131, 132. Chalmers, vol. I. p. 9. Holmes' 
Annals, vol. I. p. 94. 



1824] History of Pennsyhania. 41 

Carlier made his third voyage in 1541. Similar to that of 
England, the French government were inattentive to the va- 
lue of the recently discoveried territories in America ; but 
many respectable individuals of both nations, renewed from 
time to time, projects of permanent colonization. The third 
voyage of Cartier was undertaken at the expense of Francis 
de la Roque, lord of Roberval, a gentleman of Picardy. Ro- 
berval was appointed by the king of France, captain-general, 
and viceroy of Canada, and its dependencies, with full powers. 
Cartier as deputy captain-general, was sent out by Roberval, 
The former, on August 23d, 1541, landed on Newfoundland, 
where he was, by appointment, to meet his principal. Rober- 
val not arriving immediately, Cartier sailed alone to Canada, 
where he remained near two years, and built a temporary fort 
near where Quebec now stands. In the mean time, Roberval 
not arriving in America, Cartier sailed on his return to Eu- 
rope. Meeting Roberval on the coast of Newfoundland, Car- 
tier disregarded his orders, and continued his voyage. Ro- 
berval proceeded to Canada, where he spent the winter of 
1542-3, and returned to Europe in the spring of 1543. Fran- 
cis I. the patron of Roberval, died in 1547, and with him ter- 
minated, for upwards of fifty years, any attempt at settlement 
in North America by the French. Unaided by his govern- 
ment, Roberval, accompanied by his brother, left France, with 
an intention to proceed to Canada, and was never again heard 
of. 

So many disasters, and the distracted condition of France, 
under the expiring house of Valois, prevented any effective 
attention of the nation to Canada, until 1598. In that year, 
the Marquis de la Roche received from Henry IV. a commis- 
mission to conquer Canada, and other countries not possessed 
by any christian prince. 

Twenty years before the date of the grant to de la Roche, 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert had received one of a similar import 
from Queen Elizabeth. In 1583, after repeated disappoint- 
ments, Gilbert sailed to the island of Newfoundland, of which 
he took formal possession. On the 29th of August, his largest 
vessel, with all its crew, was lost near Cape Race ; and on his 
voyage towards England, this excellent, but ill-fated adven- 
turer was himself, and all his crew, lost on the 9th of Sep- 
tember. 

The grant to Gilbert was renewed in 1584, on May 25th, 
in favour of his maternal brother. Sir Walter Raleigh. The 
grant of 1584, expressly gave authority to Raleigh, to disco- 
ver and conquer such heathenish and barbarous lands, as ai'e 
not possessed by any christian prince or people. Under the 
Vol. I.— F No. 1 = 



42 Sistory of Pennsylvania]- [Sept,^ 

authority of Raleigh, Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlow, 
sailed from England, in order to explore that part of North 
America called, by the Spaniards, Florida. Passing through 
the West Indies, Amadas and Barlow having reached the 
American coast, and examined its bays and rivers, as far 
Korth as the mouth of Roanoke, retui'ned to Europe in Sep- 
tember 1584. The report of their discoveries was so seduc- 
tive as to induce the queen to give the name of Virginia to 
the new acquisition to her dominions. Virginia continued for 
upwards of fifty years afterwards, to designate in the English 
maps, the whole coast from Florida to Labrador, and except 
the island which still bears that name, superseded the term 
Newfoundland, imposed by the Cabots. 

Richard Grenville as general, and Ralph Lane as governor, 
were deputed, with seven ships, to proceed to Virginia, by Sir 
Walter Raleigh, in 1585. The object of this expedition was 
to plant a colony. The fleet left Plymouth, April 9th, and 
on the 25th of August reached the mouth of Roanoke, the 
point of destination. Governor Lane was left there with one 
hvmdred and ten persons, to commence settlement, and Gren- 
ville returned to England. This was the first attempt to form 
an actual establishment on the continent of America, made by 
the English nation ; and failed, as in 1586, those of the colo- 
nists who had survived, were found by Sir Francis Drake, in 
so deplorable a situation, as to induce that commander, with 
the written request of Governor Lane, to re-convey them back 
to England. Some feeble exertions were subsequently made 
to restore the establishment, but were abortive. A few days 
after the departure of Sir Francis Drake, Grenville arrived, 
with three vessels, at Roanoke, but finding the place abandon- 
ed, left fifteen men to retain possession, and sailed to Europe. 
Early in 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh, anxious to preserve his 
colony, sent out three vessels and a company of one hundred 
and fifty people, incorporated under the title of " The county 
of Raleigh in Virginia," and with John White, constituted as 
governor. The legislative authority was vested in the go- 
vernor and twelve assistants. 

In one of his voyages, Sir Richard Grenville had discover- 
ed the mouth of Chesapeake bay, into which the colony of 
1587 was directed to enter ; but by some unexplained ma- 
nagement of Fernando, their principal naval commander, these 
devoted people were landed on Roanoke island on the 22d of 
July. The new colonists found the bones of one man in one 
of the houses left by Lane's party ; deer was found feeding, 
and melon vines clambering along the walls of the deserted 
buildings; but the fifteen men left by Grenville were gone 



1824.] History of Pennsylvania. AZ 

forever ! a melancholy presage of the fate of the present co- 
lony. 

On the 27th of August, 1587", the governor sailed to Eng- 
land in quest of supplies, but of the wretched people left be- 
hind, no trace was ever since known. Thus closed the efforts 
of Sir Walter Raleigh, as to American colonization. No pe- 
riod in the sixteenth century, could have been more inauspi- 
cious to colonization than 1587. The nation was then in war 
with Spain ; without disciplined troops ; a navy scarcely de- 
serving a name, when contrasted with the formidable fleet .of 
its adversary ; and the Duke of Parma encamped at Dun- 
kirk with an army of fifty thousand veterans. In such a pos- 
ture of affairs, neither ships, seamen, and above all, experienced 
naval commanders, could be permitted to engage in any enter- 
prise except national defence. Such men as Howard, earl of 
Effingham, the two Drakes, Hawkins, Frobisher, and Sir 
Walter Raleigh, were too precious at home, to have then en- 
gaged in any distant expedition. The danger was imminent 
and pressing, and though absolute conquest, it is probable, 
could not have crowned the invaders, if their fleets and ar- 
mies could have reached the English shores ; yet such a shock 
must have produced lasting national deterioration. The Ar- 
mada entered the English channel in May, where, battered by 
storms, and harassed by the light vessels and superior sea- 
manship of the English, was finally defeated, and almost anni- 
hilated. When danger is past, nations, like individuals, re- 
tain the impression, and continue measures of precaution, and 
stand ready to oppose a recurrence. This feeling of appre- 
hension fully accounts for the neglect of a far distant colony, 
eighteen years after the defeat of the Armada. 

In France, the house of Valois expired in 1589, by the 
death of Henry III. who was assassinated at Orleans, and 
Henry de Bourbon, as Henry IV. succeeded to the throne. A 
long series of civil and religious tumult was gradually follow- 
ed by peace and prosperity, in France. As the arts of agri- 
culture and commerce revived, individual enterprise was rous- 
ed, and Canada again assumed its share of national attention. 
The American fisheries, about the termination of the 16th 
century, had commenced to engage the avidity of all western 
Europe, and after an interval of more than forty years, a 
French fleet, in 1591, sailed from St. Maloes to Canada. The 
same year George Drake, an Englishman, sailed up the St. 
Lawrence, and on his return published an account of his voy- 
age, Drake's representations, produced strong and immediate 
effects. Sylvester Wyatt, in 1594, found amongst vessels 



44 History of Pennsylvania. [Sept. 

of different other nations, above fifty English in St. Law- 
rence. 

Under the grant from Henry IV. the Marquis de la Roche 
sailed from France to Canada, with a colony of convicts. Suc~ 
cess corresponded with the moral material of his crews ; the 
plan proved abortive, de la Roche regained his native country 
to die of a broken heart. M. de Chauvin followed de la 
Roche in 1600, and was the first individual who imported Ca- 
nadian furs into France. Chauvin made a second voyage in 
1^01 ; and whilst preparing for a third in 1603, died suddenly 
in France. 

The impression on the public mind in England, by the fatal 
issue of ail attempts made under Raleigh's patent, and by the 
oppi,-essive war with Spain, v/ere imperceptibly effaced, and in 
1602, Bartholomew Gosnold had the spirit to attempt, and 
the honour to produce, a revival of English adventure to 
America. In the summer of that year Gosnold, in a small 
vessel and about thirty men, reached the shores of what is 
now Massachusetts. This active naval officer left Eng- 
land, by consent of Sir Walter Raleigh and his associates, and 
attempted a colony on Elizabeth islands. The stores and men 
were landed, but their obvious weakness created discontent 
and fear ; the enterprise was relinquished, and the little colony 
reimbarked. This was the first attempt made by any Euro- 
pean nation to obtain settlement in what is now designated 
New England. 

American colonization, at this period, was supported by 
the able pen of Richard Hackluyt, who entered, with zeal 
■and sound judgment, into the investigation of plans of dis- 
covery and settlement. By the active influence of this gen- 
tleman and others, and permission of Sir Walter Raleigh, 
the mayor and aldermen, and some wealthy merchants of Bris- 
tol, fitted out a small vessel of fifty tons, the Speedwell, and 
a bark of twenty-six tons, called the Discoverer, both com- 
manded by Martin Pring. The object of this voyage was to 
more effectually than had been hitherto done, discover and ex- 
amine the northern shores of Virginia. "^ Pring sailed from 
Milford Haven, April 10th, 1603, and reached the American 
coast amongst the islands of Penobscot bay. After ranging 
the shores to Massachusetts bay, Pring returned to Europe 
in August. 

At the same period in which Pring was employed on the 
northern section of Virginia, Bartholomew Gilbert visited the 

^ * Now New England. It has been shewn, that in the eai-ly periods of Eng- 
lish colonization in North Araericu, the name of Virginia was extended inde- 
finitely. See p. 42. 



W24.3 History of Pennsylvania. 45 

more central parts, in search of the lost colony of Sir Walter 
Raleigh. Gilbert made the coast between Hudson and Dela- 
ware bays, about N. Lat. 40, and rashly going on shore with 
four of his principal men, were all destroyed by the savages. 
The fate of their leaders intimidated the surviving crew, who 
immediately set sail for Europe, without having, in any man- 
ner, fulfilled the objects of their voyage. 

November 3d, 1603, an event occurred, which places in a 
strong light, the vagueness of English and French claims in 
North America. Henry IV. granted to Pierre du Gast sieur 
du Monts, a patent for that American territory extending from 
N. Lat. 40° to 46°, with a commission of Lieutenant General 
of that portion of country ; and with power to conquer, colo- 
nize, and rule it, and to christianize the natives. The king of 
France soon after, granted to this officer and his associates, a 
monoply of the fur and peltry trade, in the province of Aca- 
dia and Guif of St. Lawrence. In the same year of Du Monts' 
patent, Samuel Champlain, a native of Brouage in France, 
sailed up the St. Lawrence river, and made many extensive 
and important discoveries. 

The fisheries around Newfoundland had already become 
highly valuable ; more than two hundred sail of vessels, and 
above ten thousand men were engaged in that business. 

The Sieur du Monts, with Champlain as his pilot, and at- 
tended by M. Poutrincourt and a number of other volunteer 
adventurers of respectability, embarked in two vessels for 
America. He made first the coast of Nova Scotia, then Aca- 
dia, and anchored in Port Rosignol, now Liverpool. Coasting 
l-ound Cape Sable, the immense bay of Fundy was explored. 
Poutrincourt fixed his residence at N. Lat. 44° 30', where he, 
on a fine bay, established a village, to which he gave the name 
of Port Royal. This place is now the town of Anapolis, and 
was the first French settlement in North America. 

By the joint exertions of Du Monts and Champlain, the ri- 
vers, bays, and inlets of both sides of the bay of Fundy, and 
part of Maine, were discovered during this voyage. Du 
Monts wintered 1604-5, at the mouth of the Schoodick, now 
St. Croix, on a small island, at present the north-east limit of 
the United States, on the Atlantic coast.* 

In 1605, the seat of the French colonial government, if it 
then deserved the title, was fixed at Port Royal. This was 
two years before the establishment of the English colony at 
Jamestown, and four before the French settlement at Quebec. 

• When the United States and British commissioners settled that part of 
the boundary, in 1798, the ruins of Du Monts' fort was discovered. 



4^ History of Pennsylvania. [Sep*^ 

The two nations were each, however, emulous of discovery 
and colonization. The Earl of Southampton and Lord Arun- 
del, in 1605, fitted out a small vessel to attempt a south-west 
passage, and gave the command to George Weymouth, who 
appears, from his operations, to have had, even for that period, 
a very inaccurate knowledge of the North American coast. 
He made land in about N. Lat. 41° 50', and coasting thence 
north, discovered the mouth of a large river, supposed to be 
the Penobscot, up which he sailed for some distance, and in 
July set sail on his return to England. 

One hundred and nine years had now elapsed since the dis- 
coveries first made on the south-east coast of North America, 
by the Cabots. Though England and France, in the interim, 
occasionally prosecuted voyages of discovery ; and though 
both nations, in the beginning of the 17th century, pursued 
their fisheries with activity, neither, if we except the trifling 
French fort at Port Royal, had a single fortress or factory on 
shore. We have seen that as early as 1577, that the fisheries 
employed 150 French vessels, 100 from Spain, 50 from Eng- 
land, and 50 from Portugal. According to Joseph Childs, 
the Newfoundland fisheries, as those on the North American 
coast were designated, then employed 10,000 seamen.* The 
English nation, destined ultimately to become the ruling- 
power, in that part of the North American seas, islands, and 
continent, now the United States and Canada, were, during 
the 17th and the early part of the 18th century, much less ac- 
tive than its rivals, particularly France. At, and for a century 
before the epoch of actual colonization, English enterprise was 
in great part exhausted in abortive attempts to find a north- 
west passage to China and India. The rage for discovering 
mines of the precious metals, was then also at its height. Ra- 
tional projects of colonization, founded on a commercial and 
agricviltural basis, had not been then conceived by any nation 
of Europe, much less by England. 

Local, domestic, and political causes were, however, most 
efficacious in preventing England and France from emulating 
Spanish and Portuguese enterprise in America. In England, 
the long vigorous, successful, and politic administration of 
Elizabeth, was, with all its beneficial effects, inadequate to 
heal all the wounds inflicted by a century of anarchy, civil 
war, or misgovernment which preceded her reign. The re- 
sources of France, and the chivalrous gallantry of its people, 
were employed, during almost the whole of the century, in 
either wars of ambition, national defence, or civil tumult. 

* See page 45. 



1824.) Statistics. 47 

Henry IV. as late as 1^00, had merely succeeded in se- 
curing his crown by force of arms, and had yet obtained little 
leisure to cultivate the arts of peace. 

In both nations, finances, able seamen, and commercial 
knowledge were wanting ; and to these moral, were superadd- 
ed physical impediments to foreign colonization, arising from 
deficiency of population. Though thus retarded^ nevertheless, 
the germ of national force existed, and the spirit to give that 
force effect, was annually gaining intelligence by means of the 
press, and preparing for that long and embittered rivalry in 
America, which gave ascendancy to English over French 
power on this continent. 



SECTION III. 

STATISTICS. 

This department of the Repository, agreeable to the origi- 
iial plan, shall be appropriated to that branch of statistics most 
immediately connected with geography. The articles also of 
Section III. in the two first volumes, will be generally such as 
arise from and tend to illustrate the subjects of the Geogra- 
phical ami Historical departments. 

Probably, for a protracted future period, a water communi- 
cation through our mountains, will form a vital question of 
internal politics. The solution of this gigantic problem, like 
that of a north-west passage to China and India, may call into 
action the most enthusiastic feelings, and excite the highest 
exertions of individual talent. It has been said, with meta- 
physical correctness, that " no unproductive exertion can be- 
made." Such has been thus far the result of speculation on 
canal navigation from the Atlantic rivei's to the illimitable re- 
gions of the west. Calculations on practicability decried be- 
fore experiment, as extravagant, have eventuated in joining 
Lake Erie to Hudson river. With all, however, already exe- 
cuted, national enterprise seems to be only awakened to the 
importance of the object. The people of the United State*, 
as a nation, in assuming a high rank amongst the families of 
mankind, are also awarding a part of their resources, mental 
and physical, to the creation of new means of internal asso- 
ciation. 

In such a political course, pre-eminence is not attained and 
preserved by the mere possession of independence, but rests 
on the basis of intellectual and physical improvement j upon 



48 jS'tatistics, [Sept 

the conception and execution of designs unprecedented for 
magnitude and utility. The canals of New-York, colossal 
as they are as examples of human abour, are only fine as spe- 
cimens of what remains to be performed by consolidated na- 
tional force. That man deserves the grateful meed of a public 
benefactor, who enlists his talents and fortune in tracing the 
incipient plans necessary to the development of such struc- 
tures. 

Amongst the plans of internal improvement agitated in our 
general councils at the last session of Congress, 1823-4, one 
was a projected canal and lock union of the Atlantic waters 
with those of Lake Erie, by the route of Potomac, Mononga- 
hela, Ohio, Big Beaver, and either the Cayahoga or Grand 
river. =^ In the execution of this line of artificial navigation, 
the whole United States is deeply concerned, but more espe- 
cially so, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Mr. 
James Schriver of Uniontown, Fayette county, Pennsylvaniaj 
deserves much credit for his services in the early develop- 
ment of the geographical features of the country intended to 
be traversed. This gentleman, early in 1824, published In 
Baltimore, a pamphlet under the following title : 

" Account of Surveys and Examinations, with remarks and 
documents relative to the projected Chesapeake and Ohio, 
and Ohio and Lake Erie canals." 

* The last session of Congress, appropriated one hundred and sixty-three 
thousand dollars, for internal improvement, almost the whole of which is to 
be expended in experiments — such as surveys, examination for routes of ca- 
nals, &c. We subjoin a list of the acts of appropriation with the respective 
amounts annexed. 

An act authorising the President to cause surveys and estimates to be made 
^or such routes for Roads and Canals, as he may deem of importance in a com- 
mercial or military point of view, or for the transportation of the United 
,States' mail. — The sum appropriated, §30,000. 

An act for making experiments with a view to the improvement of the na- 
vigation of the rivers Ohio and Mississippi. — The sum appropriated, ^75,000- 

An act to make a road in the Michigan territory, from Detroit to the Ohit 
!5tate line. — Length of the road seventy miles. — Sum appropriated, ^20,000. 

An act to make a i-oad in the Territory of Arkansas, from Memphis, in 
Tennessee, to Little llock — distance one hundred and sixty miles.- — Sura ap- 
propriated, gl5,000. 

An act to make a road in the territory of Florida, from Pensacola to St- 
Augustine — distance three hundred and sixtv-five miles.— Sum appropriated, 
^20,000. 

The same act authorises the survey of routes for roads, from Cape Sable tc 
the Suwaney I'iver, and from Cape Florida to St. Augustine.— Sura appropri 
ated, g3,000. 

These acts were all reported by the committee, of which our worthy re- 
presentative, Mr. Hemphill, is chairman ; and it will be found upon an exami- 
nation of these acjts, that scarcely a more judicious distribution of these 
funds could have been adopted. — U. S, Gazette, Jiily 26, 1824, 



49 

in- 

jar 

of 

I at 
in- 
si- 
;e- 
ne 
;ct 

it- 
US 
to 

Cl- 

to 
le 
le 



4i 



tl 
m 
a 
c 

t: 
I 
I 
t 



1824.1 /Statistics. 49 

This publication would deserve serious notice, if it contain- 
ed nothing of value beyond its motto, which in few but clear 
and energetic words, thus depicts the reciprocal interests of 
the east and west sections of the United States : 

" For my own part, I wish sincerely, that every door to that 
country, (the west,) be set wide open, that the commercial in- 
tercourse with it, may be rendered as free and easy as possi- 
ble. This, in my judgment, is the best, if not the only ce- 
ment, that can bind those people to us for any length of time 
— and we shall, I think, be deficient in foresight, if we neglect 
the means of effecting it." — Washington. 

In addition to this text, upon which volumes might be writ- 
ten, Mr. Schriver's pamphlet contains a mass of judicious 
observation and instructive document, which are calculated to 
give ample reward to the statistical inquirer. 

The number is few, who have duly weighed the entire im- 
portance of this subject ; the following estimate, will serve to 
exhibit the comparative extent of that country of the west, the 
moral weight of which is in a state of rapid development. The 
whole land surface of the earth is, in round numbers : 

Asia, - - 10,000,000 

Europe, .--_.. 3,000,000 

Austral Asia and Polynesia, - - 4,000,000 

Africa and contiguous islands, - - 8,000,000 

North America and contiguous islands, 9,000,000 

South America and contiguous islands, 6,000,000 



40,000,000 

Considered as capable of sustaining dense and cultivated 
population, at least fifteen millions of square miles may be de- 
ducted for unproductive tracts, leaving twenty-five millions 
for that part of the earth on which highly civilized society 
can exist. 

The already organized states and territories of the United 
States, extend over one million one hundred and thirteen thou- 
sand square miles. Of this expanse, at least one million is 
capable of giving support to a very compact general popula- 
tion. This reduced area is, ^ve see, equal to one-twenty-fifth 
part of the civilized habitable earth. In this estimate is ex- 
cluded all the widely extended wastes of the west towards the 
sources of Missouri and Columbia rivers, and Pacific ocean. 

Vol. I.— G No. 1. 



afeirrmitr iil'llie piojfilnl lanol irom ih<' 
OMMO JiimH- I" J^KR iSJilB 




50 iSiattstks. [Swr. 

At the census of 1820, the actually organized states and ter- 
ritories stood thus relatively : 

Square Miles. Inhabitants. 

Alabama, - . . - 51,770 . 143,000 

Arkansaw, Territory of, - 100,000 14,273 

Connecticut, - - - 4,750 275,248 

Columbia, District of, - lOO 33,039 

Delaware, - - - - 2,120 72,749 

Florida, Territory of, - - 54,000 10,000 

Georgia, ... - 58,000 340,749 

Illinois, ... - 58,900 55,211 

Indiana, . - - - 34,000 147,178 

Kentucky, - - - - 37,680 564,317 

Louisiana, - - - - 48,220 153,407 

Maine, . - - - 35,000 297,839 

Maryland, - - - - 11,000 407,350 

Massachusetts, - - - 7,250 521,725 

Michigan, with N. W. Territory, 174,000 10,000 

Mississippi, - . - 45,760 75,448 

Missouri, - - - - 62,870 66,586 

New-Hampshire, - - 8,030 244,155 

New-Jersey, - - - 6,857 277,575 

New- York, - - - 46,000 1,372,812 

North Carolina, - - - 48,000 63-8,829 

Ohio, - . - - 38,260 581,434 

Pennsylvania, - - - 47,000 1,049,458 

Rhode Island, - - - 1,580 83,059 

South Carolina, - - - 24,000 502,758 

Tennessee, - - - - 40,000 422,813 

Vermont, - - - - 8,278 235,764 

Virginia, . . - - 63,000 1,065,304 

Total, 1,116,419 9,662,010 

Turning our eye to a map of the United States, we behold 
the foregoing area, naturally subdivided into two great sec- 
tions, separated by a wide system of mountains. Taken in 
its utmost extent, the Atlantic slope only spreads over two 
hundred and sixty thousand square miles, leaving in the con- 
nected interior basins of St. Lawrence and Mississippi, or 
rather that of the Gulf of Mexico, the prodigious extent of 
seven hundred and forty thousand square miles. The interior 
section, therefore, exceeds that along the Atlantic ocean as 
three to one nearly. If we advert to the immense excluded 
tracts, towards the Pacific, the comparative estimate we have 
made is very much too favourable to the Atlantic slope. 



1824.] Statistics. Si 

In the distribution of population, at the period of the last 
census, we have some most striking document. The Atlan- 
tic states, east of Pennsylvania, inclusive, contained 4,367,480 
inhabitants. Western states, including those from the Cana- 
dian lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and west of the Appalachian 
mountains, had, at the same period, 2,233,767. The states 
along the Atlantic ocean was peopled by the residue, 3,062,066. 
The elements of the respective masses present very inte- 
resting subjects of reflection to the philosopher and politician. 
Of the great mass of 6,601,247, found in the north-eastern 
states from Pennsylvania inclusive, and those of the west and 
south-west, only 370,000 were slaves; whilst of 2,233,767 
inhabitants in the south-western Atlantic states, more than 
1,160,000 were slaves. 

The practical application of such data, may enable existing 
statesmen to avail themselves of present advantage, and pre- 
vent future evil. It is within the scope of the recollection of 
the middle aged part of the existing generation, when the ba- 
sin of the Mississippi was, with very partial exceptions, an 
howling waste; in 1820, more than two millions, and now, 
(1824,) no doubt, above two millions five hundred thousand 
people inhabit this immense surface. In great part composed 
of free whites, and by the canals of New-York connected by 
water communication with the north-eastern Atlantic states, a 
flood of congenerous population will pour south-west. It is 
not, however, the present, but the future locality of popula- 
tion with which we are concerned in this inquiry. I have 
shewn, that if only the area included in the organized states 
and territories is taken into the estimate, more than two-thirds 
of the productive soil of the United States is in the basin of 
the Gulf of Mexico. When in the state of Ohio, in the early 
part of this year, I ascertained, that the existing population 
exceeds seven hundred thousand, or above eighteen to the 
square mile. A general population equal to Ohio, over 740,000 
square miles, would yield an aggregate of thirteen millions 
three hundred and twenty thousand. Hamilton county of 
Ohio, in 1820, contained seventy-nine to the square mile ; 
such density of population on 740,000 square miles, would 
present a grand total of upwards of sixty millions- 
Let no man dare trifle with experience. In 1790, the en- 
tire civilized inhabitants on that part of the United States on 
the basins of the Canadian sea and Gulf of Mexico amount- 
ed to about 100,000 ; in the subsequent ten years, they in- 
creased to upwards of 500,000; and in 1810, exceeded one 
million. From 1810 to 1820, this rapidly accumulating mass 
more than doubled. It is perfectly safe to assume fifteen 



52 Statistics. [Sept. 

years as a period within which the inhabitants of the region 
we have been reviewing, will increase two-fold. Allowing 
two and a half million for the present, such ratio of accumu- 
lation would give, in 1870, twenty millions, or but little above 
twenty-seven to the square mile. We may therefore, without 
danger of presumption, assert, that before another half cen- 
tury has elapsed, an immense preponderance of population 
will be in the west. The mind swells with a momentous fu- 
turity. The rapidity of change deceives the senses, mocks 
the legislator, and outruns the geographer. States, cities, 
towns, and farms, rise before the astonished traveller. The 
ntioment is at hand when political power must follow physical 
force. A revolution in our domestic relations is gradually 
withdrawing the centre of wealth and moral force towards an 
interior region, where society must possess more attributes of 
cohesion than in any other region of equal extent on earth. 

It is only necessary to turn our eye to a map of the United 
States, to trace the walls which enclose the. population of the 
basin of the Mississippi and contiguous places, and confine 
them to two points of commercial egress. Nature provided 
the overwhelming volume of the Mississippi, and the genius 
of one man has added another by artificial means. Unless 
other channels are opened, New- York and New-Orleans must 
be the emporia of the almost interminable regions of interior 
North America. In the formation of a great central line of 
canal improvement, when its moral, political, and fiscal bene- 
fits are taken into the estimate, difficulties ought to stimulate 
to action, and expense disregarded. Nations rush to wars of 
ambition, without calculating consequences; but when the 
most invaluable public works are proposed, every trivial ex- 
penditure is scrupulously examined. 

Politicians are too seldom statesmen, and even national legis- 
lation founded too much on the affairs of the moment, without 
prospective view. The whole nation is now at an enormous 
expense to build legislative halls and palaces for the officers 
of government ; edifices which the slightest foresight, the 
most cursory survey of territory, must convince every unpre- 
judiced mind, are doomed, at no very distant day, to remain 
untenanted, if the present order of things continue to operate. 
Despotism carried the court of Russia from Moscow to the 
swamps of the Neva, and despotism continues it there ; but 
in the United States, the people have retained in their own 
hands the despotism of legislation, and the choice of the spot 
whei-e the national councils are to be held ; and conseqviently 
the seat of general legislation must approach that of popula- 
tion. This is not an idle indulgence of hypothesis, it is indue- 



1824.] Statistics. Si 

tion from the previous facts of our history, and from the very- 
nature of the human mind. 

We have before us a territory exceeding two-thirds of the 
entire national domain, and a territory which, in less than 
forty years, has gained from about twenty thousand to one 
and a half million of inhabitants. It may startle any mind 
undisciplined to reflection on the subject, to be told, that in 
less than another forty years, at least fifteen millions of inha- 
bitants will exist on the great central valley of the United 
States ; and that before the termination of this century, this 
region will contain an immense majority of the people of the 
United States. 

The fearful anticipation does not rest here. It is not alone 
the residents in the expansive basin of the Mississippi which 
will be bound together by the silken cords of mutual interest 
and affection. If we turn to that artificial river which has al- 
ready almost received its aliment from Lake Erie, we at once 
behold the adamantine link, which unites the north-east to the 
south-west sections of our country. De Witt Clinton has re- 
ceived, and will continue to receive the meed of the highest 
admiration, and the most embittered calumny, for the execu- 
tion of this work ; a work which can only perish with the 
world, of which it forms one of the finest features; and a 
work which insures the immortal fame of its illustrious pro- 
jector. When the rubbish and scaffolding of the human cha- 
racter have alike crumbled to dust, and when the foul pas- 
sions of his own age have been buried in the grave of the ex- 
isting generation, then will the name of De Witt Clinton stand 
in history, stable as the mountains of his own native state, 
mocking the ravages of time. 

Much, however, as have been said and written on the great 
Western Canal of New- York, the most important effect it can 
produce, has been generally overlooked. The deteriorating 
effects of slavery in the southern states have been hitherto 
considerably counteracted by a constant emigration from the 
north-eastern states. The moment the canal into Lake Erie is 
completed, the tide of emigration must change its course, and 
rush upon western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, 
Illinois, and Missouri. 

To remove the impediments imposed to intercourse between 
sections of so much reciprocal consequence, is a labour truly 
national. The fortune of that statesman is enviable, whose 
name will be associated with the completion of canal naviga- 
tion, more than two thousand five hundred feet above the 
ocean tides. To expatiate on the grandeur of such designs 



54 Statistics. [Sbpt. 

is to lessen the effect, and to dilate on their utility is to insult 
the understanding of the reader. 

The unprecedented increase of the human species in the 
United States, has been considered as the most interesting 
fact in modern history ; but is not the peculiar moral means, 
and the unequalled local advantages of this increasing body, 
a still more important subject of reflection? Does not the 
spectacle of social happiness transcend mere numerical mass ? 
Reply to such queries is spontaneous. In all the vigour of 
youth, and with the recorded wisdom of ages, the United 
States smile at labours beyond the strength of nations in po- 
litical decrepitude. 

By reference to the appended profile maps and tables, it will 
be seen, that the great spine of the Appalachian system, or 
rather the dividing line of the rivers of the Atlantic slope and 
those of the Mississippi basin, rises by a very gradual ascent 
from the Mexican Gulf to the source of Tennessee, Great 
Kenhawa, Roanoke, and James river. Here appears to be the 
highest table land in the United States, between the Atlantic 
slope and the basins of St. Lawrence and Mississippi. From 
this elevated tract, the dividing ridge maintains a nearly equal 
height from North Carolina, over Virginia and Maryland, 
into Pennsylvania. The summit level in Maryland, between 
the sources of Potomac and Youghiogany rivers, lies 2486 
feet above the Atlantic tides. Advancing north-east from the 
latter level, the mountain system imperceptibly depresses, 
crossing Pennsylvania, and in New-York between the sources 
of Tioga branch of Susquehanna and Seneca lake, has sunk 
to 885 feet above tide water. The Newtown and Seneca 
level, though thus depressed, nevertheless lies 465 feet above 
that of the New-York canal near Rome ; the latter being only 
420 feet above tide water in Hudson river. 

It remains an undetermined problem, whether the sources 
of the West Branch of Susquehanna admits of any pass to 
the branches of Allegany river, more depressed than that be- 
tween Tioga river and Seneca lake. From any data yet pro- 
cured, the pass from Newtown to the head of Seneca lake is 
the lowest summit level from Rome, in New-York, to the 
western part of Georgia. 

Rising therefore on the intermediate table land, the sources 
of the Chesapeake rivers flow from those of the Mississippi 
and St. Lawrence basins, at various heights, from eight hun- 
dred and sixty-five to two thousand five hundred feet. In this 
sketch, the extreme elevations of the mountains are not taken 
into view, regard being solely paid to those influential on the 
formation of canal navigation. It is remarkable, that advanc- 



m 5 



L. Et„ Zn.l ' ^ i 



JPn.fi?, J/,,/, uf tiLj. Liaiul iajud or .V.Yc'rk ii,. 



ii<rnt Jlhiun' to Lii. 



JV?4 




Troi\U Map ihmv Tlola.lUo Lah: E^ie by the tovM of -ffu. Vruiy 



m. 



I 

•^ 

eT 



I 



Tro/Ue. -new ofleyeh irom, Fotomac R . „t Q,forq,'tm,',i to Lake J 



m2 



Ohio I^evd. 



B-Me Mq} from Jtidtmond Tbrg. iothe Tnaivffi of Gmtt Kmhawc 



N?l 



Wo iigi/S 



^vdeMtp -ti-om Mehncmime<).io-B,A Ttimitli of firt^. Kt 



1824.] 



/Statistics. 



55 



ing south-west from Rome, in New- York, that nature appears 
to oppose mcreasing difficulties to the execution of canal im- 
provement, by the gradual rise of the dividing ridge. 

The following tables and annexed profile maps have been 
constructed to illustrate the subjects treated of in the third sec- 
tion of this number. 

No. 1. 

Table of the ascents and descents from tide water in James river to 
the mouth of Great Kenhawa, by the route of Jamestown, Craig's 
creek, Sinking creek, and Great Kenhawa. Profile map No. 1. 
was constructed from this table. 



Richmond up James river to 


Miles. 1 




Feet. ] 










mouth of Craig's creek, 




200 


Rises 




925 


Up Craig's creek to mouth of 












John's creek, 


49 


249 


do. 


345 


1270 


Highest spring tributary to 












Craig's creek, 


8^ 


2571 


do. 


228 


2498 


Lowest point on dividing ridge, 


oi 




do. 


53 


2551 


Highest spring tributary to Sink- 












ing creek, 


01 


258 


Falls 


42 


2509 


Mouth of Sinking creek, 


34 


292 


do. 


924 


1585 


Down Great Kenhawa to mouth 












of Greenbriar river, 


55 


347 


do. 


392 


1333 


Bowyer's Ferry, 


46 


393 


do. 


403 


930 


Kenhawa at the foot of the Great 












Falls, 


21 


414 


do. 


341 


589 


Ohio river at the mouth of Great 












Kenhawa, 


94 


508 


do. 


108 


481 



No. 2. 

Table of the ascents and descents from tide water in James river 
to mouth of Great Kenhawa, by the route of James, Jackson's, 
Greenbriar, and Great Kenhawa rivers. Profile map No. 2. was 
constructed from this table. 



Richmond up James river to 
mouth of Craig's creek. 

Mouth of Dunlap's creek, above 
that of Jackson's river. 

Lowest point on dividing ridge 

Mouth of Howard's creek into 
Greenbriar river, near Lewis- 
burg in Greenbriar county. 

Mouth of Greenbriar river, 

Bowyer's Ferry, 

Foot of Great Falls, 

i Mouth of Great Kenhawa, 



Miles. 


Rises 


Feet. j 




200 


3 


925 


25 


225 


do. 


313 


1238 


16 


241 


do. 


1240 


2478 


12 


253 


Falls 


838 


1640 


50 


303 


do. 


713 


1 333 


46 


349 


do. 


403 


930 


20 


369 


do. 


341 


589 


94 


463 


do. 


108 


481 



L. Uru: L-vfl 



T-rM. il,:i' •'! 1I„_ f.,<„„l lMn.,1 Of- y.Y„rk- ir„m All;,,,, 1o BlMllo 




'BvtSUMap -iWmi h'„Ji„i,ii„ni,q.f„l}ir II,,,,, Ih lit' . (fre/ii, Kb,],,,,,., hv il„ ,„„t, „i r,rmesS.6mgs 6: SinHy &. aniGmtSmhtua. 



55 



/Statistics. 



[Sbpt. 



No. 3. 

Table of the ascents and descents from tide water in Potomac river 
at Georgetown, to Lake Erie at the town of Cleveland, by route 
of Potomac, Youghiogany, Monongahela, Ohio, Big Beaver, and 
Cayahoga rivers. Profile No. 3. was constructed from this table. 



Georgetown to Great Falls, 


Miles. 


Rises 


Feet. 1 




12 




143 


Harper's Ferry-^ 


40 


52 


do. 


39 


182 


Shenandoah Falls, 


H 


^n 


do. 


43 


225 


Cumberland, 


130| 


188 


do. 


312 


537 


Mouth of Savage creek. 


31 


219 


do. 


446 


983 


Summit level. 


14 


233 


do. 


1503 


2486 


Mou th of Deep creek, a branch of 












Youghiogany river, 


16 


249 


Falls 


342 


2144 


Down Youghiogany river to 












Smithfield, on U. S. road, 


22A 


271-1 


do. 


739 


1405 


Connelsville, 


37i 


309 


do. 


507 


898 


Mouth of Youghiogany, 


40 


349 


do. 


87 


811 


Pittsburg, 


18 


367 


do. 


11 


800 


Mouth of Big Beaver river, 


30 


397 


do. 


106 


694 


Up the latter to foot of Falls, 


1| 


3984 


Rises 


12 


706 


Head of Falls, 


2-1 


401 


do. 


44 


750 


Warren, 


50 


451 


do. 


104 


854 


Summit level between the sources 












of Big Beaver and Cayahoga 












rivers. 


10 


461 


do. 


53 


907 


Level of Lake Erie at the mouth 












of Cayahoga river at Cleve- 












land, 


60 


521 


Falls 


342 


565 



No. 4. 

Table of ascents and descents from the level of tide water in Dela- 
ware river, to the level of Lake Erie at Buffaloe, by the route of 
the Schuylkill, Union Canal, Susquehanna, and Chemung or 
Tioga river, Newtown creek, Seneca lake and outlet, and the 
Grand Canal of New-York, from Montezuma to Buflfaloe. 



Philadelphia to Reading, 


Miles. 


Rises 


Feet. I 




55 




186 


Summit level between Tulpe- 












hocken and Swatara, 


34 


89 


do. 


310 


496 


Susquehanna at the mouth of 












Swatara, 


34 


123 


Falls 


220 


276 


Harrisburg, 


13 


135 


Rises 


10 


286 


Sunbury, 


50 


185 


do. 


200 


486 



1824.] 



S'tatistics, 



57 



No. 4. (^CoJitiJiiied.") 



Brought over, 


Miles. 




Feet. 1 




185 




486 


Wilkes Barre, 


60 


245 


Rises 


100 


586 


Tioga Point, 


60 


305 


do. 


189 


775 


Newtown, 


20 


325 


do. 


51 


826 


Summit level, between the Tioga 












river at Newtown and Seneca 












Lake, 


7 


332 


do. 


59 


885 


Head of Seneca Lake, 


13 


345 


Falls 


445 


440 


Outlet of Seneca Lake, 


35 


380 


do. 




440 


Montezuma on the Great Canal, 


20 


400 


do. 


69 


371 


Commencement of Rochester 












level, 


63 


463 


Rises 


126 


497 


Along do. to the locks at Lock- 












port, - - . . 


65 


528 


do. 


68 


565 


Here commences the Erie Level, 












which extends into that lake. 


31 


559 









No. 5. 

Table of ascents and descents from tide water in the Hudson river 
at the city of Albany, to the level of Lake Erie, by the route of 
the Great Western Canal of New-York. 



Albany to Schohaiue creek. 


Miles. 


Rises 


Feet. 1 




42 




286 


Rome level at Herkimer, 


28 


70 


do. 


132 


418 


Along that level. 


65 


135 








Montezuma, 


38 


173 


Falls 


45 


rtwr. 


Lyons, 


24 


197 


Rises 


61 


434 


Rochester level, 


58 


255 


do. 


65 


499 


Along that level. 


66 


321 








Lake Erie level at Lockport, 








66 


565 


Along that level to Black Rock 










and into Lake Erie, 


31 559 









MISCELLANEOUS. 

The twenty miles of canal, extending from the vicinity o£ 
Reading towards Philadelphia, were opened for use on the 5th 
of July last. The ceremony of commencing the first complete 
canal navigation in Pennsylvania, was conducted with all due 
solemnity, by a deputation from the board of managers of the 
Vol. I.— H No. 1. 



58 Statistics, [Sept. 

Navigation Company ; accompanied by a numerous party of 
citizens from Reading and neighbouring places, a committee 
from the Union Canal Company, and several members of the 
city councils of Philadelphia. About 7 o'clock A.M. three 
barges, the Thomas Oakes^ the Stephen Girard^ and the De 
Witt Clinton^ left the town of Reading having on board near 
three hundred persons, and proceeded through the pond form- 
ed by the dam at Lewis' Falls, to the entrance of the canal. 
Horses were there immediately attached with towing lines to 
the boats, and for the first time within the state of Pennsyl- 
vania, complete canal navigation was exhibited. 

This auspicious event excited a strong feeling of pleasure in 
the adjacent country, thousands flocked to enjoy a sight a few 
years past they little expected ever to witness. — U, S. Gazette^ 
July mh^ 1824. 

This is in every respect the age of bold design, and not un- 
frequently successful experiment. The project of a tunnel, or 
arched carriage way under the Thames, at London, has been 
seriously agitated, and except its novelty we see nothing ex- 
travagant in the plan. If both were alike novel, a bridge over 
the water would in most cases be conside/ed a mucib more 
difficult undertaking, than a tunnel underneath. To their 
ignorance, or neglect of the fact, that water would rise to its 
own level, the ancients stood indebted for their aqueducts j may 
not bridges in numerous instances instances owe their exist- 
ence to a far less excusable ignorance amongst the moderns ? 

Subaquatic tunnels would oppose no obstacle to navigation, 
nor be liable to interruption by frost j and if well cotistruct- 
ed in the first instance, much less exposed to injury than 
bridges. 



Staffordshire — Grand Trunk^ or Trent and Mersey Canal. 

The additional tunnel through Harecastle Hill, was com- 
menced last month. It is calculated to occupy the labour of 
five years, during which several hundred men must be em- 
ployed. The expense has been estimated at a guinea an inch, 
(forward). The distance being about one mile and three 
quarters, or 2880 yards, which alone will make 103,680 
guineas. The total expense has been calculated at a quarter 
of a million sterling. Shafts will be sunk and steam engines 
erected for raising the earth, Sec. at different points of eleva- 
tion- — the tunnel averaging about seventy yards in depth from 
the surface of the hill. The Grand Trunk Canal was begun 
in 1767, and finished in 1777, and such is the richness of the 



1824.] Statistics, ■ 59 

company, and the business of the canal, that the cost is no 
object compared to the advantages to be gained. — London New 
Monthly Magazine for June^ 1824. 

The above Canal is about 100 miles in length, and over- 
comes a fall of 642 feet by 75 locks, and has already one tun- 
nel through Harecastle Hill 2888 yards in length, 9 feet wide 
and 12 feet high, another at Preston-on-the-hill of 1241 yards, 
at Barton of 5/2 yards, at Saltersford another of 350 yaids, 
and at Hermitage of 130 yards. It has several reservoirs to 
feed the summit covering together about 220 acres, and there 
are a number of railways and branch cuts connecting the ca- 
nal with mines and quarries. The boats used are 80 feet long 
and 6 feet wide, and the locks 7 feet wid6. The rates of ton- 
nage are a penny-half-penny per ton per mile, and the articles 
carried upon it are coals, salt, pottery wares, lime, gypsum, 
slates, and agricultural products. The Shares originally 100/. 
each, sold as high as 2280/. each in May 1824. 

Perhaps no two experiments ever made have been success- 
ful against more obstacles, or productive of more beneficial 
results than those of steam boats, and the canals of New- York. 
The following extracts exhibit a few of the practical effects. 

In the latter days of July past, several gentlemen arrived in 
New- York, from New-Orleans, Mobile and Blakely, by way 
of Pittsburg, and Lake Erie. Those from Louisiana ascend- 
ed the Mississippi, and those from Alabama travelled by land 
to Nashville in Tennessee ; thence proceeded by the Cumber- 
land and Ohio rivers to Pittsburg in steam boats. From the 
latter place they passed in stages to Detroit, where they em- 
barked in the elegant steam boat Superior, Captain Bunker, 
for Buffaloe; thence by Erie canal to Albany, and down the 
Hudson to New- York. 

These travellers state the very interesting fact, that one third 
of the passengers in the steam boat Superior, were from the 
Gulf of Mexico, preferring this route, from the south to the 
north, as being the cheapest, the most comfortable, and by far 
the most pleasant. It must indeed be a most delightful tour 
in the warm season, affording an opportunity of viewing some 
of the finest and most variegated scenery in the United States, 
comprising the rivers Mississippi, Ohio, and the Hudson, Lake 
Erie, the falls of Niagara, and the Great Western Canal, the 
most stupendous work of modern times. 

It is probable that this route will be, after the Great West* 
ern Canal is completed, chosen as part of the fashionable tour 
from the south. — National Gazette j August 2^, 1824. 



60 Statistics. [Sept. 

Mr. F. A. Stewart, commission merchant, No. 88, Coffee 
House Slip, New- York, received, August 7th, 1824, bills of 
lading, and a note of consignment, of a cargo of Onondago 
salt and kelp, to be shipped on board the ship Ontario, calcu- 
lated for catial and river navig-ation. She is schooner rigged, 
and clears from the port of Syracuse,* for New- York, and 
thence to Hartford, Connecticut. Her cargo consists of the 
common fine salt of Salina, manufactured by the Syracuse com- 
pany, by the process of solar evaporation; and of coarse salt, 
made at Boynton rocks, by a low degree of heat. The kelp is 
also a valuable article for our market. — National Gazette^ Au- 
gust llth^ 1824. 

The tolls on the New- York Western Canal received this 
year, from the opening of the navigation to the first of August, 
amount to ^130,000; nearly ^90,000 more than was received 
in a similar period of last year, and within ^70,000 of the en- 
tire sum calculated on by the canal commissioners, in their last 
Report. 

Lumber now reaches Albany at ^4 per 1000 feet. Mer- 
chandize which formerly cost ^30 per ton from the city of 
New-York to the interior, now reaches its destination, in half 
the time, at ^6 per ton. 

West gypsum in stone (unpulverised) has been sold at Al- 
bany at ^3 per ton, and Nova Scotia at ^4 50 cents. Coarse 
Onondago salt, at 5S^ and fine at 40 cents per bushel. — Na- 
tional Gazette^ August 12thj 1824. 



Inland Navigation. — -It is with pleasure we notice the arri- 
val from Mauch Chunk of a boat laden with 326 barrels of 
flour and twenty tons coal. The flour was manufactured on 
the north-east branch of the Susquehanna. And this arrival 
is an interesting fact, inasmuch as it is the first experiment of 
bringing the trade of that river to Philadelphia by means of the 
improved navigation of the Lehigh. The freight of this flour 
from Mauch Chunk to Philadelphia, a distance of 140 miles, 
was 30 cents per barrel. 

It is also gratifying to state that the Lehigh Company have 
sent down to this city the present season 150 boats carrying 
230,000 bushels of coal, and that the regular shipments from 
Mauch Chunk now amount to 3000 bushels per day. 

* Syracuse is situated on the Great Western Canal at the head of Ononda- 
go lake, about 50 miles west from Utica. At Syi'acuse a branch canal leaves 
the main trunk, and i)assing- by Salina, enters by several locks into Onondago 
lake. The works erected near Syracuse for making' salt by evaporation stand 
on alluvial flats, and are very extensive. 



1824.] S'tatzstics] 61 

Lehigh coal is now reduced to 25 cents per bushel, at Phi- 
ladelphia. 

An article in a Boston paper states, that so low was the pre- 
mium of insurance, on the ship Edward Newton and her cargo, 
that it would require the profit arising from an insurance of 
eighty-six millions of dollars, to cover the loss which the 
offices would have obtained, had the whole been insured. This 
fact shows the low rate at which insurance can be effected ; 
and the destruction of the ship shows how many dangers be- 
set a vessel upon the ocean. — With these facts in view, we 
marvel that a cent of property is ever suffered to leave the 
wharf, without being covered by an insurance. 

By a letter from the commander. Captain H. Bestody, dated 
St. Philip de Benguela, March 12th, 1824, the fine ship 
Edward Newton of Boston, was burnt on the 20th of Febru- 
ary, in the Atlantic ocean, at south latitude 29°, longitude east 
from Greenwich 10° 30'. — National Gazette, August 3d, 1824. 

To the prudent advice hinted in the foregoing extract may 
be added the unaccountable and culpable neglect of farmers 
not insuring their houses and barns. It is not too much to say, 
that more than ^20,000 would not cover the loss this season 
in farm houses and barns, by fires occasioned by lightning, 
which stands on record in the Philadelphia papers. These 
losses become still more distressing by that of human life to 
swell the calamity in many instances. 

Two modes present themselves, one to avert, the other to 
remedy this evil. A cheap rod of iron, answers the former, 
and insurance, the latter purpose ; and yet where the lives of 
a family and their means of subsistence are at stake, how much 
are those not only prudent, but really humane precautions 
neglected. 

On Friday and Saturday, July 30th and 31st, 1824, owing to 
the muddy state of the water, the operation of pumping at 
Fair Mount was suspended. This afforded an opportunity of 
ascertaining the quantity drawn from the reservoir for the use 
of the city, and it was found to amount on Saturday, to two 
million one hundred thousand gallons. The usual consump- 
tion in warm weather, is 1,900,000 gallons a day; in cold 
weather, 1,250,000 gallions. 

The mean of those extremes amounts to 1,540,000 gallons. 
The population actually supplied with hydrant water exceeds 
very little if any 70,000 persons, or upwards of 22 gallons to 
each individual. The entire number of inhabitants in Fhila- 



62 'S'tatistics, [Sept. 

delphia and Liberties, by the census of 1820, was 108,809 ; 
the present number, it is probable, exceeds one hundred and 
twenty thousand. An aquatic expenditure of l,57'5,OO0 gal- 
lons, would therefore admit an individual supply of more 
than 13 gallons to the whole inhabitants of Philadelphia, 
Southwark, Spring Garden, the incorporated Northern Liber- 
ties and Kensington. 



FOR THE NATIONAL GAZETTE. 

Mr. Edkor. — Mr. Randolph says that Philadelphia is in a 
state of atrophy, because it has neither water power nor coal. 
It is without capital too, according to that gentleman's printed 
speech, and can never possess foreign commerce. 

To show what these idle assertions are worth, I send you 
the following statistic view of Philadelphia ; it has been prepar- 
ed for a Guide of this city now in the press of Messrs. Carey 
and Lea. S. B. 

STATISTIC VIEW OF PHILADELPHIA. 

NATIONAL DEBT. 

The whole amount of the debt of the United States on the 
1st of January, 1824, was g90,451,834 24 cents — of this sum 
^43,509,211 52 cents are held in Philadelphia, thus diveded : 

Owned by its citizens and corporate bodies - 29,182,499 50 
Owned by foreigners 14,326,712 02 



S43,509,211 52 

Our own citizens receive an annual interest on this 

debt of - - - - - - - 1,700,668 11 

And foreigners - 743,915 43 



g2,444,583, 54 

The annual interest on the ivhole debt of the United 

States 5,642,724 95 

Of which, as is shown above, Philadelphia receives 2,444,583 54 

or very near one half oi the whole. 

New -York receives for her citizens and foreigners 1,338,950 39 

Boston •• 1,178,357 74 

Baltimore 208,365 16 

BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Philadelphia holds in the capital stock of the Bank of the 
United States, 37,269 shares, valued according to the present 
price at ^122 per share, and amount to ^4,545,818. The an= 



1824.] Statistics. 63 

nual dividend received in this city on that stock at the present 
low rate of dividend, is ^186,345. 

Shares, 

New- York holds in this stock - - . - - 40,289 

Massachusetts 27,837 

Bahimore .---...- 38,490 

COMMERCE. 

Philadelphia is the third, if not the second importing and ex- 
porting city in the Union, as will be seen below. I say the 
second, because the official accounts for Massachusetts, which 
stand next in amount to New- York, comprehend the great 
commercial towns of Salem, Newburyport, &c. the trade of 
which, when subtracted from that of the state, would proba- 
bly leave Boston helow Philadelphia. 

The comparative view of the commerce of the four princi- 
pal districts stands thus for the last year : 

New-York imported ^29,42 1,342 00 

Philadelphia 13,696,770 00 

The whole state of Massachusetts - - 17,607,160 00 

Baltimore - - 4,946,179 00 



New- York exported - . - - . §19,038,990 00 

Philadelphia 9,617,192 00 

The whole state of Massachusetts - - 13,685,239 00 

Baltimore 5,030,228 00 

The tonnage of Philadelphia stood thus on the 31st of De- 
cember, 1824: — Permanent, enrolled, licensed, &c. 84,927' 
tons ; since which more than 10,000 tons have been added. 
There were built this last spring, as I am informed, 15 vessels, 
measuring 5000 tons. 

POST OFFICE. 

Philadelphia paid postage on letters last year - g77,048 00 

New-York - 92,89100 

Boston -.-.-... 49,923 00 

Baltimore - - - - - - - 41,442 00 

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT. 

The exertions of Philadelphia have far exceeded those of 
anif city in the Union, for the promotion of internal improve- 
ment. It must be remembered that, vast as are the efforts of 
the state of New- York, the city of New- York has had no other 
agency in them than loaning money on good security and on 
interest, whereas the advances made by the citizens of Phila- 
delphia have been hazarded upon their own responsibility, and 
exceed in amount the estimated cost of the celebrated canals 



64 Statistics. [Sept. 

of New- York. The gross amount of the several objects are 
alone given here ; but they are taken from correct data. 

In bridges over the river Schuylkill - - - 425,000 00 

Stock in Schuylkill Navigation, Union Canal, Lehigh, 

Chesapeake and Delaware Canal - - - 3,700,000 00 
Turnpikes to Columbia and other places constructed 

with City Capital— Water Works at Fair Mount 2,600,000 00 

§6,725,000 00 

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE GOVERNMENT. 

The average annual expenses of the state government of 
Pennsylvania, are about ^325,000 including interest on her 
debt. Philadelphia pays ^260,000 of these expenses, or four 
fifths of the whole. 

REAL AND PERSONAL ESTATE. 

Not having at hand the last triennial assessment, I avail 
myself of that of 1817 ; a year of considerable depression, and 
I omit to take any account of the many valuable additions since 
made in splendid public and private edifices. 

The city and suburbs (or county) are officially returned at 
^55,418,579, which must be doubled, because the value put 
on real estate by assessors, is never more than half the mar- 
ket price. 

The real estate was then se-ven years ago - - 1 10,837,158 

Bank Stock, including that held in United 

States Bank _ . - . 15,000,000 

Insurance Stock . - . . 4,200,000 

Shipping 4,000,000 

Other personal estate, such as merchandize, 
stock in manufactories, bonds and mort- 
gages out of the city. City Stock, plate, 
furniture, all equal at least to one half 
the real estate, including ^25,000,000 of 
United States Stock held in Philadelphia^ 55,000,000 

78,200,000 



gl89,037,158 

DIVISION OF FIVE MILLIONS AMONG THE SPANISH CLAIMANTS. 

To the foregoing items, I add, as an evidence of the foreign 
coinmerce and enterprize of our citizens, the share paid to 
Philadelphia out of the awards on the Spanish claims, as com- 
pared with other commercial districts. The statement is from 
an intelligent gentleman at Washington. 



1824.] Statistics. 65 

Philadelfihia receives -.,--- 1,250,000 

New- York - - - - - - - - 1,000,000 

Baltimore - - 700,000 

All New England 1,750,000 

South of Potomac - - - - • . - 300,000 



!S5,000,000 

This very valuable table was inserted in the National Ga- 
zette of July 3d, 1824, and now published in Carey and Lea's 
" Philadelphia in 1824," for which it was originally compiled. 
By the liberal permission of Messrs. Carey and Lea, it is in<- 
serted in the Repository. Such information cannot be too 
widely disseminated. 

Connectiofi of the Ohio and Lake Erie. 

We noted, about the beginning of August, the dispositions 
which had been made by the board of engineers of the United 
Stated to prosecute the surveys of the route of the contem- 
plated canal to connect the waters of the Ohio with those of 
the Chesapeake. The whole line, our readers will recollect, was 
stated to have been divided into three sections, to each of 
which a brigade of topigraphical engineers and surveyors were 
allotted — and that the board itself subsequently proceeded 
from Pittsburg to the Big Beaver river (one of the tributaries 
of the Ohio) for the purpose of examining into the practicabi- 
lity of connecting the waters of Lake Erie with those of the 
Ohio. We have now before us information from the latter 
quarter as late as the 12th of August, at which time the Board 
had extended its examination as far west as the mouth of Grand 
river, Emptying into Lake Erie. It was on its return from 
that point, and would proceed to Ashtabula and Conveyant ; 
thence to examine the communication from the Conveyant 
river, by the lake of the same name, to French Creek, a branch 
of the Allegany river. 

The members of the board have been almost incessantly on 
horseback, and have, it is believed, concluded their examina- 
tions of the connections between the Beaver and the Cayuhoga 
and Grand rivers. The country embraced in this section has 
been found to possess an extraordinary character. On the 
ground where the streams take their rise (both those that 
fall into the lake and those of the Ohio) it is flat and swampy 
for many miles in extent ; so much so that the roads through 
it, have either to be raised considerably by throwing the earth 
from the sides to the middle, or by causeways of logs— -as, 
otherwise, the deep mud would absolutely render them im- 
VoL. I.-=I No. 1. 



66 Statistics. [S^vr. 

passible. From this extreme flatness the small streams appear 
in some instances at a loss Avhich way to run — whether to take 
to the Lake or the Ohio. The Cayuhoga is spoken of as a 
peculiar river. Taking its rise in the neighbourhood of the 
Lake, it runs thence south for some distance, when it takes a 
bend and returns to the lake at Cleveland, where it is of con- 
siderable size. The examinations of the board have ascer- 
tained the important fact that the whole of the waters of the 
Cayuhoga may be thrown into a branch of the Mahoning, and 
thence, by the Beaver into the Ohio; and this junction may 
be effected by a cut of three-fourths of a mile in length, and 
of seventeen feet at its greatest depth. 

The character of the country examined is such that there 
appears to be in the summer season as great, if not a greater 
supply of water on the summit than at a considerable distance 
down on either side. The country is found to be badly water- 
ed — many mills were passed at which there was not a drop of 
running water, and to meet with a spring was a matter of rare 
occurrence. — Baltimore American. 

From the foregoing it would appear that the waters of the 
Cayuhoga may be diverted from its natui'al course into Lake 
Erie and made to flow into Ohio, and consequently may 
be used as a feeder to a canal in either direction. A want of 
running water in the latter part of summer, and beginning of 
autumn, is not peculiar to the section of country between the 
Ohio river and Lake Erie. Almost all western Pennsylvania, 
and great part of Ohio, though abounding in springs, the eva- 
poration is so great when the thermometer exceeds 75° as in 
a great measure to exhaust the streams. — Ed. Rep. 

Union of the Atlantic and Pacijic Oceans. 

The most stupendous in conception, and most important in 
its results upon the interests of all mankind, is that of a canal 
to connect the two great oceans which bathe the opposing 
coasts of America. This subject has been the theme of spe- 
culation ever since civilized man set his eye upon the long 
irregular isthmus which joins the two wide spreading extremes 
of this continent. It is only, however, recently that the sub- 
ject has assumed an aspect calculated to arouse attention to an 
immediate inquiry into the practicability of its execution. 
That inquiry we may hope will lead to the only effectual inci- 
pient step to a further advance ; that is, a survey of the whole 
Isthmus. 

In the present state of geographical science, doubt and dark- 
ness reigK over the geography of that part of America. The 



i824.3 Statistics. 67 

following communication made its appearance not very long 
since in the Baltimore Federal Gazette, and deserves notice as 
containing many very judicious reflections. 

" To open a communication by canal between the Atlantic 
and Pacific Ocean, is an enterprise that has been long spoken 
of, long an object of speculation ; one that has occupied the 
attention of able writers, and which if accomplished upon even 
what might be deemed a moderate scale of capacity and ex- 
pense, would present to all nations new and extraordinary fa- 
cilities for trade, and confer on the nation through whose terri- 
tory the canal of navigation would pass, benefits almost beyond 
the reach of human anticipation, and certainly incalculable in 
point of revenue, and of political as well as commercial 
power. 

Now that the riches of the New World are thrown open to the 
Old — now that the emancipated inhabitants of Mexico and the 
southern portion of the New, can carry on commerce with the 
Old World, and with the United States, unfettered by unnatural 
and oppressive restrictions, and to the advantage of all, there 
only seems wanting a junction of the waters of the Atlantic 
and Pacific by canal, to give to trade that light and life, that 
spur and impetus, which the Omnipotent seems to have con- 
templated in his works, and which it would also seem was re- 
served for the present generation to promote, and if not to 
enjoy to the widest extent, at least to impart and secure to pos- 
terity. 

A canal such as that alluded to must, in a short time from 
the period of its comlpetion, change the whole face of com- 
merce, open sources of wealth heretofore unknown, turn trade 
into channels now unexplored or unthought of, and finally 
expand the mind, meliorate the condition, and improve the 
moral state of man. 

A work so important in its objects, so honourable in its na- 
ture, and promising to be so vast in useful results, belongs to 
the Republic of Colombia. — To this republic, first amongst 
the new states, in order, in constitutional liberty, in heroic 
suffering and public virtue, belongs the actual achievement of 
an enterprise which would appear to have been hitherto little 
more than the waking dream of the philosopher, or romantic 
project of the engineer, but which we have at last reason to be- 
lieve, is easy of accomplishment, and on the verge of execution. 

A gentleman with whom we have conversed, who has tra- 
velled much in Colombia, who has made surveys of different 
parts of that country, and who, from education, intimacy vnth 
science, and general intelligence, is well qualified to decide on 
the subject, prefers a communication between the two seas unit- 



&8 Statistics. [Sept, 

ing the rivers Atrato and St. Juan de Chirambira to any other 
route that has been yet mentioned or explored. He has, indeed, 
nearly satisfied us, that a junction cannot take place either by 
the lake Nacaragua or by the river Chagress. — The latter is to 
be considered as beyond a doubt impracticable. The oceans be- 
ing here divided by a ridge of at least three thousand feet above 
the level of either sea, and as to the route by the Nicaragua, 
it is to be observed, that this lake lies many hundred feet above 
the level of the ocean ; that all extra or superfluous waters are 
invariably carried oif by the river St. Johns, w^hich though the 
only outlet, has ever proved adequate to drain the freshes of 
the lake ; that the river itself runs with great rapidity ; that it 
would require an immense sum to lock or dam it for the pur- 
poses of navigation ; that even were this done, it is appre- 
hended the opening a junction across the neck of land divid- 
ing the lake of Leon from the Pacific, would drain the upper 
lake, Nicaragua, below the level of its union with the head of 
the river St. Johns, and thus render the intended communica- 
tion by this route altogether hopeless. We present these 
points of consideration briefly as possible, from a variety of 
data before us, but, we trust, sufficiently clear for all the objects 
of a newspaper communication. 

The local circumstances attendant upon tke proposed plan 
of junction by the rivers Atrato and St. Juan de Chirambira, 
are of a totally different character, and could we wonder at 
any neglect or mal-administration, distinguishing the Spanish 
government from all others in the civilized world, we should 
express our astonishment, that a w'ork so easy of execution, 
and of such, we might say, unbounded utility, should have 
been left unattempted to the times in which we live. The 
plan of the projected union between the two seas is, it will be 
seen, simple and easy, for nature has made it so. 

The Atrato taking its rise about the middle of the fifth de- 
gree of North latitude, and of the 77th. of longitude West 
from London, runs smoothly and not rapidly, nearly a north 
course about five hundred miles, till it empties itself into the 
Gulf of Darien, one hundred and forty miles south-west of 
Carthagena. In the whole of its course it is clear of obstruc- 
tion of any kind, with deep water, except on its bar, which has 
only seven feet, but this is fully sufficient for large steam- 
boat navigation. 

The St. Juan de Chirambira also has its rise about five hun- 
dred miles in the interior, but takes a different direction from 
the Atrato, and empties itself into the Pacific at Chirambira 
Bay, where there is a good harbour. This river is also of easy 
navigation, with deep water, and in running its course it ap- 



1824.)- Statistics, ' > 69 

preaches within four miles of the Atrato, at about eighty miles 
from the head of the latter, the ground between being a dead 
level — so much so, that the overflowing of either river inun- 
dates the intervening plain, and on such occasions boats have 
actually passed from one river to the other. 

Thus a canal of four miles, to the cutting of which there is 
neither the obstruction of rock, river or mountain, unites the 
Atlantic and Pacific oceans for all the important uses of large 
steam-boat navigation ! 

Should a particular branch of the Atrato be used, near to 
the place of the proposed junction, locks in some place would 
be necessary, but whatever route may be fixed upon, the work 
presents neither natural difficulty, nor the necessity of a very 
large expenditure, whilst the consequences promise to be such 
in utility and magnitude as to defy calculation. 

To the United States and to Europe the benefit would be of 
Vast import ; it would bring the Pacific and even China, com- 
paratively home to our doors. A merchant, in the event of 
such a canal being completed, could, to Lima for instance, have 
a cargo out, and a return, in less time than is now occupied in 
the voyage out, independent of the decrease of risk, the con- 
sequent saving of insurance, and diminution in the expense of 
freightage. Besides, new sources of trade would be opened, 
and articles which now never pass Cape Horn, either way, 
would become valuable objects of traffic. However, to enter 
into a full examination of this part of the subject, would take 
more time and room than we can devote to this article, though 
sufficiently impressed with its interest and importance. 

But if the benefits to commerce and to nations generally 
would be so great, what incalculable advantages would not 
such a communication bestow on the Republic of Colombia! 
— what a spring of industry would it not give to her people — 
what a mine of wealth would it not open to her merchants— 
what a scope of power would it not place in the hand of her 
government ! It is only in this latter point, perhaps, that the 
undertaking is to be viewed with jealousy, for it is evidently 
calculated to insure her influence, approaching to command, 
over the trade of the Pacific — the Pacific, which seems destin- 
ed by nature for steam-boat navigation, and which is touched 
at so many distant and important points by the Republic of 
Colombia, It would also give her unexampled weight in com- 
mercial treaties with foreign powers, and an immense revenue 
from even a very small transit duty. Indeed to make the na- 
vigation profitable, the duty ought certainly to be very small. 
The fine city of Carthagena now languishing, occasioned by 
the dearth of produce in its immediate neighbourhood and the 



70 Statistics, [Septo 

opening the port of Santa Martha, might be thus saved from 
impending ruin, for should the now contemplated canal by the 
Atrato be cut, Carthagena, from its vicinity to the mouth of 
that river, its position, commanding the entrance of the Gulf 
of Darien, and its safe harbour, would become the emporium 
of the trade to the Pacific, from Europe and the United States, 
and that important fortress of the republic, which now begins 
to put on the appearances of decay, would soon assume all the 
spirit and prosperity of commercial greatness. 

We might, from the materials in our possession, enlarge 
much more and shew still further how variously the proposed 
canal would benefit Colombia and all nations, but we have 
said enough to gratify curiosity, and sufficient to awaken in- 
terest on a subject of unquestionably great importance to the 
world." 

The writer of this document, like many others, has indulg- 
ed in expressions derogatory to the Spanish government in 
America, without perhaps duly weighing the peculiar circum- 
stances under which that government was placed: and also, 
in applying to the colonial system of Spain in America, what 
is general, or universally due to all systems of colonial depen- 
dence. It is probable that the most ruinous circumstance pecu- 
liar to the Spanish colonies, was the spreading of a limited 
population over too wide a surface. I have already in this 
number, remarked the scarcity of population in Europe at the 
epoch of the discovery of America.* In addition to the con- 
fined source of emigration, the Spanish colonists were spread 
along the continent and islands of America, from N. lat. 40* 
to S. lat. 33*, or over upwards of five thousand miles from 
north to south, and on above five millions of square miles. 
On all this vast area, embracing the finest climates of the 
earth, and concentrating in many places the most valuable na- 
tural productions — but man, the most valuable of all, was want- 
ing. In the neighbourhood of Mexico, where condensed popu- 
lation and wealth have put it in their power, the inhabitants 
have done more than has been ever done in any other place by 
a people labouring under colonial restriction .f When civil 

* See page 38, note. 

f The mountain valley in which the city of Mexico stands, has been com- 
pared to the bottom of a reversed saucer. In its natural state this elevated 
basin was liable to occasional and destructive floods, by which the city of 
Mexico was frequently inundated. To remedy this inconvenience, the Mexi- 
cans have cut a canal of desiccation through the mountains and led the'surplus 
water into the river Tula. "The Desague" {Drain') says Humboldt, "is in 
its actual state (1803,) undoubtedly, one of the most gigantic hydraulical 
works ever executed by man." 

The Desague of Mexico will be amply noticed in a future number of thr 



1824.] 6'tatistks. 71 

liberty is once secured, the face of affairs will no doubt assume 
another and infinitely more favourable aspect. The resources 
of the various Spanish nations will be developed with a rapidity 
which must astonish the inhabitants themselves. 

To cut the isthmus, is, however, not simply to enhance the 
power and resources alone of the nation over whose territory 
the canal is made, but such a work must change the whole 
commercial relations of the world. It is an enterprise of the 
highest import to the free nations of both Americas ; and as 
no direct geographical view has ever been given of that part 
of America over which the proposed connection is to be made, 
it is my intention to devote a share of the Statistical part of 
the Repository to that object. Bardn Humboldt, in his politi- 
cal essay on New Spain , noticed the different routes by which 
a canal could be formed, but entered into no general descrip- 
tion of the Isthmus. In the actual state of geographical science 
no completely satisfactory detail can be made, but enough is 
known to admit the subject to be brought forward in a more 
connected form than has been done hitherto. 

No very definite idea has been conveyed by the term Isth- 
mus of Darien, or Panama. The narrow strip of land between 
the Gulf of Panama of the Pacific, and the Caribbean sea, an 
arm of the Atlantic, presents the nearest approach of the waters 
of those vast oceans j but, with very unequal width, extending 
from south-east to north-west upwards of 1500 miles, the im- 
mense Isthmus affords several points where the distance from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific is evidently within the scope of canal 
enterprise without any very onerous expense. This wiir be 
more clearly understood from the following geographical view. 

If we extend the great American Isthmus, on the east to 
the mouth of the Atrato river, and on the west to the Gulf of 
Tehuantepec, and river Chimalapa and Guasacualco, it reaches 
from half a degree east to eighteen degrees west from Wash- 
ington city. The bottom of the Gulf of Darien and mouth of 
the Atrato, is in N. lat. 8° 30', the Gulf Tehuantepec in N. lato 
16° 20', and the mouth of the Guasacualco river in N. lat. 
17° 30'. 

Within these geographical limits spread two vast penin- 
sulas, containing together, more than three hundred and fifty 
thousand square miles, and discharging into the Gulf of 
Mexico and Caribbean sea numerous rivers, many of which 
are of considerable magnitude, and length of course. 

Repository ; it is alluded to in this place to shew, that where obstacles were 
not insurmountable, the Spanish colonists in America were not that indolent 
race they have been supposed. The parent state was in reality chargeable 
with thwarting every laudible undertaking, and what parent state has ever 
acted with uniform liberality towards its colonies ? 



72 Statistics. [Sept. 

It may be premised, that in the present, as in almost every 
other instance, the geography of the mountains is most defec- 
tive. In all our maps of North America, the great central 
chain of Anahuac, in Mexico, is extended to the south-east, 
and connected with the chains of the Andes in South America. 
I have been for upwards of twenty years of opinion that this 
arrangement was radically wrong, and almost the reverse of 
fact. One very general law of construction seems to prevail 
in the mountain systems of America ; the chains extend in 
lateral ridges in one general direction. This I have already 
shewn is strikingly apparent in the Appalachian system. As 
far as we possess correct information, the same regularity of 
structure prevails in the great chains west of the basin of the 
Mississippi ; and in those of the Brazils, and Andes of South 
America. In all these chains their range seems uninfluenced 
by the contiguous oceans or rivers. If my hypotheies respect- 
ing the mountains of Guatimala be correct, their range is 
nearly north-west and south-east, leaving deep intervening 
valleys. Also, that similar to other American mountains those 
of Guatimala are of very unequal elevation, admitting pass- 
ages not very elevated, from ocean to ocean. We see by re- 
ference tO/the profile maps prefixed to this number, that the 
Appalachian admits two passes from the Atlantic into Lake 
Erie one, less than nine hundred, and the other only five hun- 
dred and sixty-five feet above tide water in the latter ocean. 
That similar and much less elevated passes exist in Guatimala 
and Colombia, I trust will be seen in the course of this me- 
moir. 

Another very important element in the investigation of this 
subject, is that of the respective levels of the Atlantic and 
Pacific oceans. The trade winds and current of rotation, it 
is well known, produce that immense whirlpool in the Atlantic 
Ocean, to a part of which opposite the south-east coast of 
North America has been given the name of Gulf Stream. 
Between South America and Africa, and within the tropics, 
the surface of the Atlantic ocean flows regularly westward. 
Separated by Cape St. Rocque, S. lat. 5°, this vast ocean cur= 
rent is divided : the northern section inclined to the north- 
west by the coast of South America, is carried into the Carib- 
bean sea. Again urged forward in the same direction by the 
general range of the Isthmus, the accumulated flood pours into 
the Gulf of Mexico between Yucatan and Cuba ; and again 
escapes into the Atlantic between Cuba and Florida, 

(To be Continued.) 



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